Laptop PSU swapping, dangerous?

NutritioN · 5 Aug 2008 at 10:25

Hi, at work in a small office we have three Dell laptops from the past couple of years. A Vostro and 2 different Inspirons. They move between tables and the power bricks are often close together and pretty much indistinguishable.

Using PSU of higher output isn't going to cause problems is it? Please tell me they adjust to load like desktop PSUs.

And the reverse, no serious problem if underpowered, but a chance that the laptop might lockup?

Really don't want to label or police the use of the power bricks.

Cheers.

TheVoice · 5 Aug 2008 at 10:45

I believe Dell notebooks will usually show a BIOS message (at least, on start-up) if the power supply isn't compatible with the system, so I'd imagine it'll be safe.

beermonster · 5 Aug 2008 at 14:48

so long as voltage is within is within 1-+ it should be fine, higher amps is also fine, lower amps will cause it to not charge the battery at the same time or sometimes just switch off.

NutritioN · 5 Aug 2008 at 15:04

I'm talking about a the possibility of interchanging a 90W and a 65W as an example. Volts are the same, but Amps vary 4.64 to 3.32.

ninja2000 · 5 Aug 2008 at 16:21

I have done it as we use Dells at work.

Just make sure the laptop is not drawing more ampage than the power brick can output.

(ie using the 65w adapter with a vostro with dedicated gfx running full tilt).