AC Adapter Question

I'm too lazy to research this. Will a AC adapter from a XPS M1210 work on a
Inspiron 1520? As long as the output is 65 watts?

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:24:43 GMT, "Greg" wrote:

I'm too lazy to research this. Will a AC adapter from a XPS M1210 work on a
Inspiron 1520? As long as the output is 65 watts?

This is a good question for me too. I have had many laptops with this
kind of adapter, starting I think from the 600m. I don't pay
attention and just use any old AC adapter on any laptop and it works
fine.

I think some are above 65 watts -- does that mean it recharges the
battery faster?

Possibly. I had asked a question about a car adapter. I think it has to be a
certain wattage in order to run the machine and charge the battery at the
same time.

"Journey" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:24:43 GMT, "Greg" wrote:

I'm too lazy to research this. Will a AC adapter from a XPS M1210 work on
a
Inspiron 1520? As long as the output is 65 watts?

This is a good question for me too. I have had many laptops with this
kind of adapter, starting I think from the 600m. I don't pay
attention and just use any old AC adapter on any laptop and it works
fine.

I think some are above 65 watts -- does that mean it recharges the
battery faster?

Hi!

I think some are above 65 watts -- does that mean it recharges the
battery faster?

Not necessarily. The internals (usually a circuit known as a DC-DC
converter) have to be able to handle it as well. A 90 watt power brick is
used with my Latitude D800, but the docking station supposedly puts out
somewhere in between 120-150 watts. I suppose the majority of this is used
to power attached peripherals and whatever might be in the expansion slot.

It does not--even on an empty docking station, plugged in to only the
laptop--let the battery charge any faster or allow two batteries to charge
at once.

William

I looked on the one that came with the Inspiron. Its a 90W adapter. I'm
afraid the 65W won't supply the power needed.


"Barry Watzman" wrote in message
...
65 watts is a very small adapter for a laptop these days. Most are more
than that, up to as much as 120 watts.


Journey wrote:
On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:24:43 GMT, "Greg" wrote:

I'm too lazy to research this. Will a AC adapter from a XPS M1210 work
on a Inspiron 1520? As long as the output is 65 watts?

This is a good question for me too. I have had many laptops with this
kind of adapter, starting I think from the 600m. I don't pay
attention and just use any old AC adapter on any laptop and it works
fine. I think some are above 65 watts -- does that mean it recharges the
battery faster?

On Thu, 6 Sep 2007 17:12:18 -0500, "Greg" wrote:

I looked on the one that came with the Inspiron. Its a 90W adapter. I'm
afraid the 65W won't supply the power needed.

I used to have an Inspiron 1505, and I think all of my power adapters
worked with it, and that most, if not all of them were 65W.

The MINIMUM wattage required by the laptop for sustained operation on AC is what
is important. Also the voltage. An adapter rated at a higher wattage will
work just fine, provided it supplies the same voltage. An adapter rated at a
lower wattage can only be used to charge up the battery. If the laptop requires
higher wattage than the power adapter provides, running the computer itself is
likely to burn out the power adapter and damage the computer... Ben Myers

On Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:24:43 GMT, "Greg" wrote:

I'm too lazy to research this. Will a AC adapter from a XPS M1210 work on a
Inspiron 1520? As long as the output is 65 watts?

On Thu, 06 Sep 2007 23:28:33 -0400, Ben Myers
wrote:

The MINIMUM wattage required by the laptop for sustained operation on AC is what
is important. Also the voltage. An adapter rated at a higher wattage will
work just fine, provided it supplies the same voltage. An adapter rated at a
lower wattage can only be used to charge up the battery. If the laptop requires
higher wattage than the power adapter provides, running the computer itself is
likely to burn out the power adapter and damage the computer... Ben Myers

Gee thanks Ben, now I am going to have to go through the effort of
checking this out. I was living blissfully until you came along :-)

Hi!

Gee thanks Ben, now I am going to have to go through the
effort of checking this out. I was living blissfully until you
came along :-)

If it's been working fine, you've probably already answered your
question. Dell power supplies have some means by which to communicate
with the computer--at the very least, they can convey their output
wattage to the system setup or diagnostic programs. This would imply
that the computer can adjust its power demands somewhat.

Even if your adapter doesn't communicate with the computer, you might
get away with it anyway. I used the adapters for various Compaq
laptops (Presario 1215, 1275, LTE 5000, and a 1000 series Presario)
interchangeably. None of these computers seemed to mind or be
negatively affected, although the LTE's charging circuit seemed to
demand that the original adapter be used. The voltages of each adapter
were between 18.6 and 19.1.

Just watch the adapter for any signs of overheating and try to keep
the specs very close to what they should be. Of all the things to
watch out for, polarity is the most important. If you get that wrong,
the consequences are usually impressive and fatal. :-(

William