Using a charger with different volts/amps

[Pho]

My Dad recently managed to fix an Acer Aspire 9100 I was given because it wouldn't charge any more (it turned out one of the chips had fallen off inside). I wasn't given the charger so am currently using the charger from my laptop (which incidentally stopped charging the other day too).

The charger from my laptop (HP) has an output of 18.5 volts at 4.9 amps and a replacement charger for the Acer has an output of 19 volts at 3.42 amps. My charger works fine with the Acer however I'd rather not cause any long-term damage to it, would I be better off buying a proper charger for it or will mine be safe?

Thanks .

 

[2StepSteve]

That should be fine to use long term. The important thing is the voltage, if the charger your currently using was outputing more than 19V i'd advise to stop using it, but as the charger you are using as a replacement is 0.5v less that what the laptop is rated it will be fine.

Normally find more often than not appliances will work happily with -1V under/+1V over the stated. With something like a laptop though best to play it safe and don't go over.

With the amps should fine again, but see how warm the powersupply gets after a hour or so maxing out the CPU and perhaps playing a DVD at the same time to really put a load on the powersupply and see if its upto the job without heating up too much.

 

[Pho]

Cheers for the reply, exactly what I wanted to hear, and saves me £30 on a new charger .