Repairing Laptop Power supplies and power adapters.
Where to begin? Well the Laptop Power supply is inside the computer, the
power adapter is connected from the AC to the computer. Fooled you.
You thought
the little black box that had the AC cord was the power supply! For those that
know go on down the page. It works like this: Because a laptop is considered a
device that is 'Global' the first manufactures needed to come up with a way to
get 110 to 220 volt AC to the laptop. Solution: create a device that only
reduces the AC to 20 - 12 volts DC with an amperage high enough to drive the
Power Supply inside the laptop where it converts the voltage to DC with the +5,
-5, +12, and -12 volts that the components of the computer need to operate. Cool
huh? Those guys thought it out and now if you travel to some far off place and
they have Electricity you can use your laptop and charge the battery for those
places that don't!
Note: Do not take these voltages/amperages as gospel, check you own system to
find out what can and CAN NOT be
used!
So now you know that you have a device that will reduce voltage and amperage
to a safe level for you laptop.
Some things to know about laptop power supplies:
1) They will fail with time. Nothing lasts for ever, even stars burn out.
2) On battery the power supply will not
produce enough power for some external USB devices, sorry the battery can only
supply so much.
3) My experience is that the power adapter will fail long before the power
supply, may want to get a spare and store it. When the original fails there may
not be any left to buy.
4) When a battery will not charge anymore it is 99% the battery and not the
power supply. If you have two batteries and neither will charge then it is your
power supply in the computer.
5) When the computer starts to age the battery does too, it will not hold a
charge as long as it did when it was new, see my battery page for more info.
6) Your power supply is a marvel of engineering, it either works or it
doesn't and when it fails replace it. Now replacing a power supply in a laptop
can be a easy task or a nightmare, it depends on the computer. I have changed
out a Compaq power supply in less than an hour, then again the last Toshiba I
power supply I changed took me half a day. Depends on the manufacturer. You will
have to at a minimum open the
case, remove the
keyboard, some you have to take the motherboard out of the case to get the power
supply out (Toshiba).
$17.95
