laptop power supply issue

[rookie1010]

Hello

I tried to use my frends power supply adaptor for his laptop discovered that the ouput from his adaptor is 19.5 volts whereas the input required for my laptop is 16 V.

there was no activity in my laptop, do you guys think i might have messed up my laptop. we swapped batteries and my laptop seems to work ok, the final litmus test(i guess) would be to check if my adaptor works on my laptop

 

[tractorboy]

probably not, what type of notebook do you have...i can not recall seeing one that was not 19v aprox. I will assume that you are using a barrel connector on the end of the cable. what you have to watch for is the polarity, usualy the inside is "+" and the outside is "-" if you plug one in that is reverse , it could damage, alot will have a diode to protect from reversals

 

[Texas Heat]

Heres the deal. If you put a power adapter that pulls 19.5 volts from the wall and puts it into your computer, and your computer power supply can only handle 16 volts then there is a strong chance that you will fry circutry.

However, since you said that you booted it up off the battery, I would say that no, you got lucky and nothing will be broken on your computer.

 

[dipique]

Ditto on Texas heat. Generally a voltage that difference that small won't hurt, but I wouldn't risk my laptop that way.

Dan

 

[rookie1010]

thanks for the replies

so if the computer is booting off a different set of batteries then nothing is wrong, correct?

i am actually charging the battery of laptop 1, the laptop with power supply input of 16V in the other laptop, laptop 2, the laptop with power supply of 19.6 V.

you guys think that if my laptop, laptop 1 boots of of the exchanged battery, the power supply unit also works fine too ??

diplique, you mentioend that a voltage difference that small wont hurt, then why would it not work on 19.6 volte in the first place, or you mean to say that it wont work at 19.6 but wont burn anything either?

i guess +-1 volt would have been within the tolerance.

the two laptops are both sony's, one is the vGN-s360 and the second is the vgn-s460, i dont understand why sony changed the power supply ratings

 

[tractorboy]

although it is not a good idea to overvoltage anything by more then 10-15% , they still have voltage reulators on the mainboard of the note book and also some have a diode to protect against voltage reversal
and may have mild over voltage protection. It might be wrong to think that since the batterys work the dc power jack circuitry works works. A surge or mechanical damage could break it, leaving the rest of the notebook unharmed. Unfortunately it's all on the mainboard.

 

[rookie1010]

if the dc power jack circuitry was broken the first time, would i have noticed it, i mean would there have been some sort of smell or noise.

in this case, there was no sign, the computer just did not turn on, would there not be a fuse of some sorts like in the good old days

 

[tractorboy]

If the connector was mechanically broken you probably would be able to see that. Like for instance, taking some sort of a pointer and being able to move the center lug inside the notebook. There is a center lug ? There should be a little play, or if the whole assembly moves so that the barrel connector will not fit. I do not know if you have seen a mainboard of a notebook, everything is miniturized. So even some of the power connector stuff is small. ..and possibly easy to damage
I have a SONY VAIO notebook myself. PCG NV23 , or NVR23 or something like that. My notebook along with just about all notebooks I have seen, and verify this on your friends notebook, has an indicator lamp to show if it is plugged to ac...also I there is an option in control panel that will tell you instantly if you are running on bat or ac. So more then likely it looks like you may need to get a power unit, to find out...

 

[rookie1010]

thanks for the reply, there is a central lug. i dont think the central lug is broken, it does not seem to be moving around.

why would the central lug break?
i have seen the circuit boards of mobile phones and have bit of knowledge regarding them, my understanding is that the power goes into small power supply chip, and then the power comes out with various powers (e..g 5v, 3v, 7v) on different rails. i thought that power supply chip might have been damaged.

i dont think there is an indicator light on my friends pc which indicates it is tunning of the battery, not at least on the front panel. there is one which indicates the laptop is turned on, one which indicates if the levele of the battery, one hard disk activity, optical drive activity(?), memory stick, and wlan

i think i can check out the functioning of the power supply by looking at the battery icon in the system tray , if it is charging up with the correct power supply adaptor plugged in, then it is working.

if it is broken, is it fixable? what are the chances that it is broken?

 

[tractorboy]

About 70-80% of the broken notebooks I see here , it is the power connector, that's why I asked. I think what happens is that while they are plugged in they are kicked or pushsed back against a wall or a latteral sideways jolt. This usually either breaks the cenet lug or rips the whole connector lose. About another 10% or so have a cracked display and the rest have had some liquids dumped in them, usually milk. I see very few notebooks that have just quit running, every once in awhile I see
one that has been brought in with a noisey fan.
You are absolutely correct. More then likely there is some sort of
power chip like you said that is damaged.
These are you options the way I see it
1. you could get the correct dc power unit and see if that works
2. you could get the notebook repaired, which you are not sure if it is broken. Would envolve labor charges and certain replacement of the mainboard of the notebook. Expensive if you have to buy the mainboard outright, not as expensive if you can do a "core" exchange, where your old mainboard gets sent back.
3. you could sell the notebook on ebay fully describing what is wrong and noting "AS IS " sometimes you can get more "parting out " or taking apart and selling the parts seperate.
4. Getting an RMA from Sony and having them take a look at it
or a really reputable and I mean someplace that almost fixes notebooks exclusively and let them look at it. You may be able to go in with the notebook and they may while you are there plug in the correct power unit and see if it works, I do little stuff like that for walk ins, though I do not have a dc16v power unit and they may not either unless they specialise in Sony. I think Sony has repair Depots across the country.

I think if it were me, I would see if I could find the corrct dc power unit with the correct polarity connector. You may want to check , look near where the hole is there should be a diagram it may say tip +, or a circle inside a circle with a line pointing to the inner circle and at the end of the line it should have a " + " or " - " depending on polarity. I would google for a power unit, try to get a aftermarket maker, if you buy from Sony they may be expensive, also try EBAY.