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.