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Using a different laptop charger?
Inspiron 1520 My wife's computer. close to 2 years old.
My wife broke the wire from the charger (AC Adapter). I might be able to do surgery to reconnect it but...
We have an old Dell charger. It's the same in every way except that the output of the broken charger is 4.62 amps and the old one is 3.34A.
Sure, I could just plug it in and see what happens. I'm here because there is a little fear that doing that could do some kind of damage. I tried searching old questions (Why did I only find posts from 1999 to 2004?) and now I think it's more likely that the computer will just refuse to recognize the old charger.
So do I plug in the old charger? Bad idea?
Steve
dallascowboyswo
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November 17th, 2009 23:00
Only use the a/c adapter that is designed for your computer.
LaptopNomad
539 Posts
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November 18th, 2009 04:00
BIOS checks the adapter ID through the 3rd wire in the power cord.
When no or the wrong AC adapter ID is reported the battery is not charged.
BIOS reports this through the screen message : AC adapter could not be deteremined.
tlswilso
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November 18th, 2009 20:00
Thanks to both of you who replied.
If my (my wife's) power cord has a 3rd wire, I can't figure out where it is. It's like a coaxial cable with one wire up the middle and a wire mesh around that.
It turns out, it was the wire mesh that was broken. I sliced it open, bridged across the break by placing some extra wire fibers over the break. I taped it up good and tight and it is working just fine again. Problem solved for now.