fredmartens

Sluggo, welcome to FlyerTalk! If your Dell works anything like my P4 Toshiba, your DVD should work just fine in "battery optimized" mode. My "early model" 5100 did not have such an adapter when I bought it (it had only been out a few months), but probably would work fine now with the new ones.

On my Toshiba, the Intel chipset steps down "performance"; that is, clock speed, screen refresh rate, hard drive seek time and screen brightness. It also tends to put the screen and hard drive into hibernation mode faster during input lapses. During DVD playback, the screen brightness can be manually adjusted anyway if necessary. You may also see a slight "hesitation" between movie chapters, but it's no big deal. Display resolution may or may not be slightly reduced; try it in your car if you want to see how it will operate! I think it'll be fine, though.

AA_SPG_Fan

Just updating in case anyone was in the same situation trying to get a 90w Dell working on a cigarette plug...

I called into Leo Laporte's show here in LA and I got on the air (I gave a plug to Flyertalk and the good resources here)! I was able to talk to him and he suggested the APC unit, which I bought from eBay with Flytertalker mitchell's help. Tried it out in my car and it works fine -- but seems a little shakey at times -- eager to see how it performs on a plane, but Leo seems to think it will work. It doesnt seem to work if I plug the battery out. The power comes on and off at times - but the laptop battery supplies the power when the plug-in power runs out.

cubbie

The AC adapter for my Toshiba say 15V -- 4 A, so does that mean it draws 60 watts? If so, can I assume I'd have no problem using the APC adapter on an AA flight?

I currently have a Targus universal adapter, which I bought for use with a different laptop (Acer -- had to call Targus to request the right connector). The Targus website doesn't even list a connector for the Satellite Pro M10, and none of the connectors in the default package they sent seems to be the right size. Does anyone know what the correct Targus plug would be? Or should I just forget that and buy the APC adapter?

Bruce Patterson

I'm looking for the tip that changes an air adapter plug into a car adaptor plug. I'd like to buy several of these since they tend to wear out. I've got several adaptors that work, but that tip is shot.

Any ideas?

Bruce