Laptop power cable

[Red Alert]

Broke my cable the other night, for my Dell Inspiron 9400 ( if it makes any difference )

 

Bought a replacement today that is a 65w cable, the original was 90w. Laptop seems to be running fine, however the box in the cable seems a bit hot. Is this going to cause any issues or should it be fine??

 

Thanks.

[mdearlove]

The higher wattage cables are usually only required if you want to power the laptop in a docking station.

[Red Alert]

Thanks, just wanted to make sure nothing was going to go wrong with it be on the safe side.

[Al de Man]

Have a checked of the input requirements on the laptop which are the voltage(V) and current(A)? Multiply the two together and that gives you the power consumption (watts) of the laptop itself. Bear in mind that this will be a maximum figure for running the computer and charging the battery at the same time.

 

If you're significantly over 65w, then it may be a good idea to run the computer without the battery and only charge it when the PC's off.

[Sev]

Was the replacement an offical Dell power supply or a third party unit?

 

In my experience having used several Dell laptops over recent years, and occasionally borrowing a workmate's power supply, Dell laptops expecting a more powerful psu recognise when a 65W psu has been plugged in, and the battery gets charged more slowly (or not at all in some cases if the psu is only enough to keep the machine running), they don't draw more power overheating the psu.

 

That's what would happen when using a 65W Dell psu with my old Inspiron 9200 (very similar spec 17" to the 9400), if you haven't wiped the Dell drivers then Windows would even give you a little system tray icon to confirm what charger you've plugged and that it's charging at a slower speed. If you see this icon then you should be fine. I wouldn't like to comment on what might happen with non Dell power adapters though as I've no idea if they'll behave the same.