I was using my new emachines M6811 laptop, which has an A/C adapter with a "90W" blue sticker on the end of it, with a 150W cigarette lighter DC/AC inverter, Tripp Lite brand, in a 2002 Toyota Echo. The car has a new battery and the cig lighter had never before been used. The first day, with about
7 or 8 hours on the road, there were no problems. Eventually, however, one day I plugged it in the inverter again and within about ten minutes the inverter alarm started sounding. I kept resetting it and in another five minutes the inverter's fuse blew, and the car's fuse blew, too, but it was somehow delayed by a few hours I think for some reason because we didn't notice the stereo wasn't working until hours later).A few dumb questions:
- Is it possible that the laptop adapter is already going bad, drawing more power than should be? (Every time I plug it into the wall while the laptop is running I get a VERY visible and loud spark.)
- If I bought an inverter that supported more wattage--say, 250 watts--would that decrease the chances of the *car* fuse from blowing out, or does the car fuse not "care about" the power handling of the inverter? (I don't know much about electricity.)
- Would a direct DC-to-DC step-up converter be better? Any recommendations on a model of such an adapter for a laptop marked on the bottom with "18.5 watts"?
Thanks, Jon