Replacing adapters

Welcome to the Dell Community @EkoGeko 

The one one the "Left" is 60W adapter.

The one on the "Right" is 90W adapter.

The 90W adapter will work as a replacement for the failed 60W adapter.

Best regards,

U2

Thank you! @U2CAMEB4ME 

I see that the broken one is 1.6A and the second one is 1.5A?

Is that a problem?

@EkoGeko 

No that is not a problem.

This rule goes for all laptops.

On the failed adapter you will see "Output" 19.5V ~ 3.34A = 65W

On the replacement you can see "Output" 19.5V ~ 4.62A = 90W

Volts x Amps = Watts

If you look on the bottom of your laptop you will find the laptops power requirements.

Sometimes it can be found under the "Main" battery.

With "SMART" AC adapters you can always use a higher rated AC adapter but never use a lower rated AC.

Meaning if the laptop requires 65W then you can use a 90W adapter.

BUT if the laptop requires 90W then you should never use a 65W adapter.

You can go higher than what is required but you should never go lower!!!

I hope I explained it well enough???

Regards,

U2

@EkoGeko The answers above are mostly correct. As long as you’re using genuine Dell adapters, and the connector physically fits, and the wattage of the adapter you’re using is at least what the system requires, it’s perfectly fine to use. Technically you can use lower wattage adapters too, but you’ll see possible slower battery charging and performance throttling. You still won’t damage anything though, so I would say it’s not optimal, not that you can “never” do it.

The fact that an AC adapter can provide more amperage doesn’t matter because the system will only ever draw what it needs. The adapter doesn’t force amperage to the system. The voltage matters, but Dell has kept the voltage consistent for all of their barrel-style adapters since they were introduced about 15 years ago. I’ve had a 130W adapter in my living room forever and I’ve used it with Dell laptops requiring anywhere from 45-130W, and I’ve never had a problem with any of them.

@U2CAMEB4ME  the claim that you should “never” use a lower wattage adapter is unnecessarily strong. It won’t cause any damage to the system or the adapter. It can cause slower battery charging and reduced performance, so it’s certainly not ideal, but if a lower wattage adapter is the only thing a user had available in some situation, it’s still ok to use, and using that adapter in order to keep their laptop functional would certainly be preferable to avoiding it and therefore only being able to use their laptop until the battery died. Especially in these times when people are forced to work from home and getting equipment might be challenging, I would suggest that it’s important to carefully distinguish between things that aren’t ideal to do and things that actually should never be done.

@jphughan 

A lower wattage adapter will begin to overheat as the laptop continues to try and draw more watts than the AC is designed for.

This is not something I Googled or read from other posts it is from the last 20 years of testing hundreds of thousands of laptops.

I have had lower wattage AC’s connected to laptops in the past and after a few hours the AC adapter could not be touched because it was excessively hot.

Yes they would work but for how long and at what risk???

And yes I understand these times as my company remains open to provide parts and equipment for Health Care Providers, First Responders and yes people forced to work at home.

Regards,

U2

NOTE:

And yes I stand behind my statement:

“You can go higher than what is required but you should never go lower!!! “

@U2CAMEB4ME  I can’t speak for HP systems since I see you have several of them listed in your posts (seems unnecessary on a Dell forum...), but Dell systems at least for the last 15 years have had a mechanism to learn the wattage of the attached adapter, and they will adjust accordingly based on the answer. If the adapter is unrecognized, they will throttle performance and battery charging speed as much as possible. You can see this detected AC adapter wattage information in the BIOS of any Dell system made in at least the last 15 years. All of the Lenovo systems I’ve worked with do the same, although my experience isn’t as substantial there.

@jphughan 

I only use HP equipment because of the quality and serviceability.

That in no way reflects the amount of Dell equipment I test on a "Daily" bases.

In fact I test more Dell equipment than any other brand.

And yes I understand Dell, HP, IBM/Lenovo etc use "SMART" AC's and "SMART" batteries.

The system, AC and battery utilize the SMBus to communicate and regulate the charge and discharge of the system.

No matter what I would not recommend using a PA-10 on a Aienware 17 R2.

You know what I'll have to try that tomorrow and see what happens???

Regards,

U2

@U2CAMEB4ME  I wouldn't "recommend" it either, but if that was someone's only option other than letting their laptop battery die and then not being able to use the laptop at all in a time like this, then I wouldn't consider that a better option.  Yes, using a laptop with an undersized AC adapter can cause the AC adapter to run hot -- but that's not because the AC adapter is being forced to supply more power than it's designed to (AC adapters can restrict their output, after all) or even that the system is TRYING to draw more wattage than the AC adapter's rated wattage.  Consider this: If you plug a 65W power source into a laptop designed for a 65W power source, the laptop will not actually be drawing 65W most of the time; it just needs to be able to draw up to that much, but typically the AC adapter will only need to be providing 25-45W.  (This is easiest to observe when using USB-C power sources since you can connect a USB-C multimeter in-line between the charger and system to see the wattage at that "segment", whereas with traditional AC adapters you'd have to use the multi-meter between the wall outlet and the brick, so your readings wouldn't take into account AC/DC conversion efficiency losses.)  But if you plug that same 65W adapter into a system designed for a 130W power source, then even after the system has taken measures to throttle its battery charging speed and performance in order to reduce its power consumption, it's likely that the AC adapter will still be spending more time supplying an amount of wattage that is at or near the adapter's 65W max, because the system is designed for a power source that offers twice that amount.  AC adapters tend to run hotter when pushing more power, but that doesn't mean they're being used in a way that exceeds their rated capacity.  An adapter that runs VERY hot might mean that it's cheaply made and inefficient since energy that generates heat is energy that isn't being passed through to the system itself, but that still doesn't automatically mean it's going to create a fire hazard or something.  Similarly, if I run my CPU and GPU at max load for a prolonged period, they'll be a lot hotter than if I only ran them at a 30-40% load too, but that doesn't mean I'm damaging my CPU and GPU running them at max load.

As for your test with the Alienware, that might not work at all because that power wattage shortfall might be so significant that the system will simply refuse to use it at all.  Throttling has its limits.  But try pairing a 65W adapter with a 130W system.