Need Help-Charger is very HOT
 

I have a 2 year old compaq Presario (2500). Last night my charger got
extremely HOT. I took it to Comp USA and they told me it was bad and I
needed a new one.

They sold me a universal AC power adapter by Kensington and it is
heating up as well.

My question is "What it is causing this and what might be wrong with my
computer?"

Thanks!

PS I am typing this from my work computer

Need Help-Charger is very HOT
 

On 11 Sep 2006 15:13:19 -0700,
wrote:

I have a 2 year old compaq Presario (2500). Last night my charger got
extremely HOT.

Had you ever checked the temp before and this was an
unusually high temp?

The most heat will result when laptop is plugged in with
battery drained some, and you're using the system
simultaneous to charging. You'd have to compare this state
of power to same thing previously.


I took it to Comp USA and they told me it was bad and I
needed a new one.

Maybe true, but what led them to the conclusion?
Some do get fairly hot, but I don't know how hot, "extremely
hot" is. Often if they have failed, they won't have output
at all.


They sold me a universal AC power adapter by Kensington and it is
heating up as well.

I'm not a big fan of Kensington, IMO they mostly sell junk,
BUT, it could be they had little to no control over the
specs of this power adapter and thus it is decent enough
merely to escape significant liability problems.



My question is "What it is causing this and what might be wrong with my
computer?"

A short might, but it is presumed the laptop still works?
After it's been charging, does it appear the battery has the
expected (remaining, if an old battery) runtime?

It is a bit hard to directly compare heat from two different
supplies that may differ a little in design. I don't know
what the Kensington cost, but personally I would have sought
same Compaq supply or a generic closer-to-exact replacement.

Take voltage readings if you have a multimeter, of the
supply and of battery. Measure the current from the supply
too if you have the ability to fabricate a dongle so you can
make a series break in the connection to do this.

Need Help-Charger is very HOT
 

Need Help-Charger is very HOT
 

Thanks for the replies. But yes, it is hot enough to burn you if
touched (the connection point is anyway).
wrote:
wrote:

I have a 2 year old compaq Presario (2500). Last night my charger got
extremely HOT. I took it to Comp USA and they told me it was bad and I
needed a new one.

They sold me a universal AC power adapter by Kensington and it is
heating up as well.

My question is "What it is causing this and what might be wrong with my
computer?"

Thanks!

PS I am typing this from my work computer

'extremely HOT' could mean anything to the rest of us. Is it hot enough
to cause pain if held? If not it may be fine.


NT

Need Help-Charger is very HOT
 

On 11 Sep 2006 16:33:48 -0700,
wrote:

Thanks for the replies. But yes, it is hot enough to burn you if
touched (the connection point is anyway).


.... then you need to have the laptop checked out. Checked
for physical failures like capacitors or mechanical
breakage, battery charging, etc.

One good baseline to determine is how much current the
laptop is drawing from the supply and compare against the
rating for the supply. At full output the supply should be
quite hot, but that hot? Probably not, but we don't have
the specs for the original nor the replacement supply for
comparison purposes.

Need Help-Charger is very HOT
 

kony wrote:
On 11 Sep 2006 16:33:48 -0700,
wrote:

Thanks for the replies. But yes, it is hot enough to burn you if
touched (the connection point is anyway).

Since youve got the same problem with 2 different supplies, I'd say
your laptop is drawing excessive currrent. Appliance case temps are not
normally designed to run hot enough to burn. So replacing the psu again
wont solve the problem.


NT

Need Help-Charger is very HOT
 

I would say that your laptop or it's battery (have you tried swapping
batts) are drawing too much current from the adapter either by
shorting or some additional impedance inline with the charging system
of your laptop