And if they don't have any power plugs, do what Elbonians do.

Use a long extension cord from the toilet to your seat, or alternatively, sit in the toilet whilst your taupe is recharging.

When EmPower first came out, laptops were in the 50-60 watt range, so 75 watts was plenty.

There's now an EmPower system that offers standard 110v outlets with 150 watts.

The somewhat slow adoption of the 110v outlets has to do with weight and safety, which in turn cause costs. The 110v system has to be sufficiently protected to keep from electrocuting the seat occupant if he spills a drink or the seat is damaged. The heavier wires and regulators add weight.

Had the same problem myself, but it was on a Dell laptop. Just out of curiosity, how do you know the max output on a plane is 75 watts? I've never heard that before. Like you, my Targus adapter always shut off after a few seconds.

In the case of AA, it's right on their technology page:

http://www.aa.com/content/travelInfo...horEvent=false

From the official EmPower site:

Re: Laptops drawing too much wattage...

I have a HP nw8340, it has a 90W power adapter. Therefore, LIND did not sell a aircraft version of thier adapter, because the laptop draws too much power.

What did I do? Got the auto power supply, and I bought the cheap 12V car socket-to-Empower adapter.

Does it work? Well, sometimes! I have found that it ALWAYS works to charge my laptop when it is on standby or turned off! :) If it is running, some planes won't work, some will. Some come on and off, while others just shut off and won't come back 'online' untill you unplug and replug.

Anyway I don't want to overload the planes, so I never try to power it up while I'm using it anymore. But, works great to charge it up, and by that means it's nearly as effective as something that works all the time. :)

Is it true that if you remove your battery while using a plugged-in laptop saves battery life?

Not sure what you would be charging if your battery was removed..(!) I have heard that you can preserve battery life by:

1) charging it up
2) use it until its about 75% full
3) remove it

In any case, I think if you are not using it would be better to remove it and keep it somewhere cool rather than have the constant thermal cycle as your laptop gets warm and cools down. Laptops seem to vary - some seem to be always trickle charging batteries whilst others let them discharge a little before topping them back up. I don't like leaving batteries in if I know they are always being charged. But on the other hand its really handy to have the battery there if there is a power cut.

If your laptop is close to the limit you may find that it will work on a plane with the battery out but not with the battery in - especially if the battery is not fully charged up.

On the other hand, the best way may be to power up the laptop on the battery, then plug into the aircraft. I put a meter inline with my power cord to my old celeron laptop and tried different things. The peak consumption was always on boot-up - including restoring from hibernation. After that, nothing I could do would match that power consumption - including running a DVD on full volume.

130V? From an Electrical perspective, that's a pretty weird number. 230V is standard, but 130V?

Doubtful. It's more a function of how many total charge/discharge cycles the battery goes through. That said, for best battery performance, you should drain your battery completely (as completely as your laptop will allow before shutting itself down) and recharge it once a month.

Sorry to hear you had problems with Igo. I've had mine (model 70 I think... Not beside me right now) for about 2 years, and have used it without trouble on many airlines - both empower and 110 volt seat outlets

Thank goodness for power outlets on planes. I have to travel from asia and europe to the US all the time and I can't imagine those long flights without my laptop... I usually ask for a seat with a power outlet but recently, on Contiental my outlet didn't work and they wouldn't change my seat. On Continental and United the seats with outlets are usually the first rows (16-20 something) in coach. All business seats have outlets.

I've never seen a United flight with economy power outlets. Can you elaborate on that?

You're absoluetley right! My mistake. It's business and first for United.

It wasn't a problem with IGO, it was a problem with the laptop.......