Dell Adapters
 

I am wondering if anyone knows if the Dell latitude adapters are all the same. I have a d430 (great little machine) and would like to get an adapter for home but don't really want to spend the almost $100 (with shipping) - A friend of mine gave me an older one that he no longer uses - it's a little bigger, has a different model number. The voltage and polarity seems to be the same (checked with a meter) but it has a higher AMP rating (4.8 vs 3.6) - I assume this is just the max draw and it should not be a problem.

The plugs are the same.

Any chance of damaging my machine with this adapter?

D In Mtl

It'll work just fine.

It will be fine as long as the plugs are the same.

You can get aftermarket ones should you need one for usually $25 or so, but free is better.

The male plugs seem to come in profuse, unnecessary variety. I had a Dell Inspiron a couple of years ago whose adapter featured a very uncommon plug size. Of course, I left it in a client's office Friday night with a weekend's worth of work to do. Couldn't locate an adapter that fit properly in any retail store. I rang Dell up to ask them to FedEx one, and the rep told me my particular adapter was on two-week back-order. "So what do people do when they're in my situation?" I asked. "They wait," was her succinct if maddening response.

Just be sure and check plug compatibility.

assume?
 

Is it pretty safe to assume that if the plugs fit, the voltage and polarity will be correct and nothing will get fried?

Since their older latitude/inspiron adapters, they have gone to one single power adapter. It comes in a 75 watt and 90 watter variety. The former will only power a laptop, the 90 watt will power a laptop or a docking station. Both have the same size connector, but the 90 watt has a larger brick.

Hope this is helpful,
Matthew Gulino

The smaller one is 65W, not 75 but this is otherwise correct. In some cases I've seen issues with the bigger laptops needing the higher wattage supply to be happy, but as a general rule with Dell, if the plug fits, you're fine.

At least last summer there are also 130 watt adaptors around. Last summer I was given a M90 laptop "workstation", which had a massive brick. Needed another brick for a docking station we were going to use for the M90, and tried to use a spare 90 watt that was laying around. The Notebook at the initial boot phase came up with a notice that a 130 watt power supply was needed. Plugged the 130 watt brick that came with the M90, and everything worked fine.

So I bought another 130 watt brick on Ebay for $40.

In my experience with Dell, yes. The only concern is if you have a dock and use the incorrect adapter, as the dock won't work. Going into the BIOS and then to the battery screen would show a warning message if there was something awry.

Generally, no. I had a small Toshiba that got very hot and would lock up when used with a different adapter with the same plug.

The wattage issue is a big deal. Many of the newer dells will tell you "I will run on the 65w adapter but not charge the battery."

I've got a d630 now (albeit not one of the monster desktop replacement machines) and while it will run on a 65w supply and charge, the power brick itself gets pretty hot. A 90w runs very cool by comparison.

My D630 charges just fine on the 65W supply; I've been using only a 65W for a few years now, with the D600, D610, D520, D620 and D630, and never had a problem with the battery not recharging.