Originally Posted by
jackal
Surely the brick itself can't be drawing 100+ watts without anything plugged into it. (If it does, that's a horrible design!)
For many things, startup current for many thing can be (briefly) much higher than the continuous draw. Not sure if that applies to laptop power bricks (or some but not others.)
Yet clearly, something does cause the outlet to trip. I'd be curious to pick up a wattmeter and plug the brick into it at home someday to see what comes up...
I'd be just as curious about peak as continuous.
FWIW, my new Precision 7510 seems to do a decent job of managing power usage and not throttling the CPU too much and still charging the battery even on a crappy 65W adapter (it just charges much slower). Dell did a good job on this machine.
Good to know! I've been keeping an eye for a 7510 or 7710 refurb on outlet; they move very, very fast.