Travel Technology - Apple MacBook Pro 17" and DCpower on airplane - troubleshooting and recommendations?

JUST bought a Kensington DC power adaptor for $69.95 at the Apple store today, on an American Airlines flight with Gogo wifi. Plugged the new adaptor into the DC power port and power light will be green for about 2 seconds and then go red.

Using a 17" MacBookPro.

If I have the laptop in sleep mode it will charge, and the power indicator on the adaptor stays green, but as soon as I open the laptop and anything starts up, the power adaptor shuts down and I'm using my laptop battery again. The instructions seem to say that if my device is drawing too much power, the adaptor will shut off. Also if the port is providing too little or too much power, it will shut off.

I'm not a techie and this was the only adaptor for sale at the store. Has anyone else had this problem, is there a fix or any indication that I might have a defective adaptor? And if it's just a function of my machine drawing too much power for the adaptor to handle, can anyone recommend a better adaptor?

(I have flown JAL where they have the regular AC power outlets like we have at home, and not had a problem with this computer.)

Thanks in advance for any help!

(Posting from 39,000 feet, which is pretty cool, but won't last long if I'm just on battery power. :( )

Basically the computer draws too much power just under regular consumption. I have a 15" MBP that even on some airlines like United with the regular A/C ports, it is unable to charge under heavy use. The circuit protector trips on the plane side and stops powering it for safety reasons.

I'm not a techie and this was the only adaptor for sale at the store. Has anyone else had this problem, is there a fix or any indication that I might have a defective adaptor? And if it's just a function of my machine drawing too much power for the adaptor to handle, can anyone recommend a better adaptor?

the airline power outlet is limited to 75 watts and the macbook pro adapter is rated at 85 watts. if you are going to use the computer and charge the battery at the same time, it's very likely it will use more than 75 watts total and cause the outlet to shut off.

your best bet is with apple's airline adapter. it's a lot less clumsy than an inverter and power adapter, however, it (stupidly) won't charge the battery. the other option is get a magsafe power adapter for macbooks (not pro) which are rated at 65 watts. it'll work fine and it's under the 75 watt airline limit so the inverter shouldn't shut off.

One very important thing to keep in mind: before using your MacBook Pro on the plane, make sure your battery is fully charged up! What is probably happening in your situation is that the adapter is trying to charge up your battery, AND supply power to run your computer--it will most certainly exceed the wattage of the outlet at your seat.

Or OP can just remove battery.

I had the same problem. I have a 15" MBP and when I use most DC/AC inverters with the 85w power adapter, the Magsafe light will turn orange and then start flickering, and the battery won't charge after the computer is woken up.

I did find a Belkin product called "AC Anywhere;" it looks like this (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=safari&rls=en&q=Belkin+AC+Anywhere&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=13834616507435357554#ps-sellers).

It's incredibly heavy and clunky, but it's the ONLY DC/AC inverter that tricks the Magsafe adapter into thinking that it's getting 85w, or it tricks the port into thinking that it's delivering only 75w but is actually delivering more.

But other than the AC Anywhere, NO other inverters have worked successfully with my MBP.

I agree with the suggestion of always starting with a fully charged battery when boarding a flight. It's less strain on the system to keep a 100% battery at 100% rather than charge it up from 10% to 100% while the computer is operating.