Newbie AC/DC electronics question

The output matters.. You _might_ get away with .5V more, and .34A less. But it's takeing a chance so you better decide wheather it's worth it. And don't forgett that laptop batteries with wrong electricity might blowup.. without warranties.

I did an theoratical evalutaion of my own laptop battery. And the energy inside it is equalient to 3 kubic meters of water falling down 7 meters (approx). So one should have respect for it. Ofcourse it also illustrates the power difference between the electromagnetic and gravitational forces :)

Chances are you would be fine using the other power supply, but nothing beats checking with the manufacturer first. Especially with the price of laptops...;o]

They both have center positive, and the specs are very close with only a 1/2V

I doubt the mfg would ship a PS with a laptop that's right at the absolute maximum input voltage of the laptop, so a 1/2V difference is probably a moot point. Most power supply outputs aren't 100% what the spec says anyhow. If you measure the output at the power supply jack, you'll most often see more than +/- a 1/2V difference.

Using one with a higher output current rating is normally just fine since the device it's powering is only going to draw what it needs to begin with "unless it's shorted". Using one with less may or may not work, but with only a 340mA difference, it's probably going to work fine.

If your laptop were drawing right at 3.5A from the first one, then using one with a max of

At any rate, I would check with the mfg first. It's much cheaper than a new laptop.

its my guess you should be ok with that. its only a .5 volt increase and most likely will drop down a bit on load.

Jamie El Fattal wrote:

I believe that if the second power supply is regulated then it should work fine. A Non-Regulated power supply may be harmful to your laptop as the voltage vary depending on the load. Assuming that your second power supply is non-regulated then I would first check with the mfg. to see if the second power supply can be used.