Help with AC adapter

[liamkincaid25]

Greetings friends , once more need your advice. I bought an armada v300 very cheap on ebay. It works ok I tested it with a power supply from another v300 I have at home (this power supply is not the original). The specifications of this power supply are as follows : Input 100-240V ~1.5a 50-60Hz , Ouput 19V ---2.4A I came into possesion of 2 compaq ac power supply that I need advice to see If I can use any of them with this armaad V300 to avoid buying one specifically for it The specifications of the first is as follows Input100-240V 50-60Hz 80-118VA Output 18.75VDC 3.15A.
The specifications of the second one are Input 100-240V , 50-60Hz ,0.8A Output 16.5V--- , 2.6A , 27W. I am not to savvy concerning electricity and just want to avoid frying this laptop.Any word of advice as always will be deeply appreciated.Thank you

[david eaton]

Using the first one you listed should be ok, the voltage is only 0.25V low, and from my experience with these things, more of an estimate, as the voltage depends on the current output, which is more than enough.

[Mini-Me]

Greetings friends , once more need your advice. I bought an armada v300 very cheap on ebay. It works ok I tested it with a power supply from another v300 I have at home (this power supply is not the original). The specifications of this power supply are as follows : Input 100-240V ~1.5a 50-60Hz , Ouput 19V ---2.4A I came into possesion of 2 compaq ac power supply that I need advice to see If I can use any of them with this armaad V300 to avoid buying one specifically for it The specifications of the first is as follows Input100-240V 50-60Hz 80-118VA Output 18.75VDC 3.15A.
The specifications of the second one are Input 100-240V , 50-60Hz ,0.8A Output 16.5V--- , 2.6A , 27W. I am not to savvy concerning electricity and just want to avoid frying this laptop.Any word of advice as always will be deeply appreciated.Thank you

You need to be aware of the current consumption at the given supply voltage of the laptop you want to run on these other adaptors.

Generally speaking, so long as the voltage of the generic power pack is somewhere within a few volts of what it should be, and the current or wattage figures match or exceed the power consumption of the laptop, you are OK.

What we need to know, is what is the normal power consumption of the laptop - without that, it is difficult to advise you correctly.

There should be a consumption figure in either watts or amps in the specs pages of your laptop manual. If you don't have a manual, you can go and download a PDF copy of one for your machine, from the Compaq website.

The thing you need to make sure you don't do, is overload a weak power supply. Lets say your laptop sucks 3A at 18v when the CPU is running at 100%. If you use a power pack which can supply 2A at 18v, you will overload the power pack any time the CPU needs to run at 100%, which would be quite often. This would result in the power supply getting much hotter then normal, and the lack of current capacity could result in corrupted files and other quirky behavior from the laptop, which you most certainly DON'T want! :p

However, if you have a power supply which can provide 5A at 18v, it would be fine, and never be overloaded, even with the laptop running at 100% CPU load.

Hope I have not confused you!
:p

You say you tested the new laptop with a PSU you had at home from another laptop of the same spec, but you also say that this PSU you have, is not the original, so therefore, it may not be a reliable point of reference for either machine.

As an educated guess, I would say you'd be OK using the 18.75v @ 3.15A PSU - if in doubt, use the PSU with the most grunt, and that is the 3.15A one. :)

Overvoltage will also hurt most laptops, although, they generally are quite forgiving with varying input voltages. I have an old IBM Thinkpad here which is supposed to run on 18v, and I can run it with no problems on a 12v 3A PSU, it just won't charge the battery. :D

If you can post back the consumption figure for the laptop, I can give you a more accurate "Yes" or "No" answer.

[liamkincaid25]

This are the specs for the armada v300 taken from HP website
Electrical Ratings for AC Adapter
Rated Voltage 100-120/220-240 VAC
Rated Frequency 50-60 Hz
Rated Input [4/2 A]
That last part about the 4/2 A got me confused Hope this help so you can advice me on whish one is the best option.Thank you

[Mini-Me]

This are the specs for the armada v300 taken from HP website
Electrical Ratings for AC Adapter
Rated Voltage 100-120/220-240 VAC
Rated Frequency 50-60 Hz
Rated Input [4/2 A]
That last part about the 4/2 A got me confused Hope this help so you can advice me on whish one is the best option.Thank you

You're almost there, but this info does not give the laptop power consumption figures.

The 4/2 A means that the mains load is 4 amps at 110v, or 2A at 220v.

I think you'd be fine with the 3.15A power supply you have.
I would say that it would be juicy enough for all but the most modern of laptops, with a very fast CPU in it.

I will have a look around on Compaq later tonight.

[liamkincaid25]

I was able to find this other information at HP website
External AC Adapter
Dimensions (HxWxL) 1.15 x 2.375 x 1.4 in/2.92 x 6.03 x 3.6 cm
Weight 0.66 lb/0.3 kg
Power Supply (Input)
Operating Voltage 90 to 260 VAC RMS
Operating Current 1.1 A RMS
Operating Frequency Range 47 to 63 Hz AC
Maximum Transient 4/50 kV
Is basically the same , do not know if tha 1.1 A RMS is the information you need.
Thank you for your support

[Mini-Me]

Yeah, the manual is not very specific as to the power consumption of the laptop, when running on the power adaptor.

The technical service reference guide for your model does mention that the peak power consumption when running on battery power, is 30-watts.

Using Ohm's law, this works out as 2.7 amps at 100% CPU load.

I would use the 3.15 amp power supply and think that this would be just fine, based on what I have been able to find out.

[liamkincaid25]

Yeah, the manual is not very specific as to the power consumption of the laptop, when running on the power adaptor.

The technical service reference guide for your model does mention that the peak power consumption when running on battery power, is 30-watts.

Using Ohm's law, this works out as 2.7 amps at 100% CPU load.

I would use the 3.15 amp power supply and think that this would be just fine, based on what I have been able to find out.

Thank you for both of you for your answers. I followed your advice MiniMe and used that power supply. The laptop worked just fine. I prefer to be cautious than reckless and seek the help of pwople like you who know more about the matter than myself. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

[Mini-Me]

Thank you for both of you for your answers. I followed your advice MiniMe and used that power supply. The laptop worked just fine. I prefer to be cautious than reckless and seek the help of pwople like you who know more about the matter than myself. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

If only more people were cautious like you!!!
:D

You're welcome - glad you are happy.
:)