Any electricians in the group?

Gents,

Last night we had an unexpected black out and which wiped out the AC charger on one of my laptops. I checked eBay for a replacement unit and there are some candidates which match the specs down to the final detail except one small bit of detail and I would love to have some feedback if this difference is significant or not.

More specifically, my damaged AC charger has the following on the back:

Input: 100-240V - 1.6A, 50-60Hz
Output: 19V, 4.74A Max (90W Max)

On Ebay I have found units with the following specs:

Input: 100-240V - 2.4A, 50-60Hz
Output: 19V, 4.74A Max (90W Max)

Is the difference in the highlighted item of significance or can I proceed anyway with the units which are available on eBay? If it matters, the damaged AC adapter charger is also made in China.

Thanks in advance!

Anthony.

The 2.4 amp rating of the eBay device means that it has more power available then you need, Good safety margin.
Mind that there are many plugs going around. You may have to reconnect your old Laptop plug to our new Power-supply. Mind the polarity!!!

Success,

Jouke

Jouke,

Many thanks (!) for the encouraging news. I now have three Compaq Presarios but only two AC adapter chargers. : angry:

As for the polarity, it is something I will check into and your reminder is appreciated.

Thanks again.

Anthony.

Hi Anthony.
Do youself a favour and make sure you buy a brand powersupply for the laptop.
I had a similar experience and bought a cheapo ebay powersupply and it blew with 2 months and took the motherboard with it.
Thankfully I was able to get a new motherboard for it cheaply and ended up buying the psu from dell, which is what I should have done in the first place in hindsight.

The input power usage is higher while the output power is the same, if these figures are correct then this thing is going to run hotter, the extra power is going somewhere and it not going to the outputs, so its gonna burn.

Up to you Anthony, but I'd never get a non brand laptop psu off ebay again, beware of cheapo chinese garbage.
I have however in my days got a ps3, ipod, cd players and a netbook off ebay and these are all working fine.

Dave,

After reading your message and advice, I thought I would check the power supplies on my other two Compaq Presario's and they are indeed HP/Compaq whereas the one that blew was not. Now this is quite revealing.

I will check around to see if I can find an HP power supply and how much it costs. The two HP/Compaq power supplies which I have are also made in China when looking at the back of each one.

Anthony.

well, I suppose everything is made in china, just beware of the cheapo non brand knockoff garbage, theyre often badly designed and have little or no cooling ability so dont last long. I could have fried an egg of the cheapo psu I got back then.