Laptop Power Supply

T

Taffy Apple

Limp Gawd
Joined
Sep 4, 2005
Messages
376
Does anyone know anything about laptop power supplies?

I've got a laptop that is cutting out and the little LED on the laptop power supply is flickering when its under load. Does that sound like a the power supply is faulty to anyone?
 
What model of laptop? I know with some DELL laptops the power supplies sometimes starts to fail like you've described and I've experienced the same. You should RMA the power brick or buy a new one. The other problem might be that the power connector is coming loose from the motherboard which means a flaky solder and would require a new motherboard or a technically competent person with a soldering iron.

cheers
 
Its an EiSystems 4411, so cheap oem brand.

The power supply is a Delta ADP-60DB.

The connector on the back of the laptop seems sturdy enough, there's no give in it, but maybe I should inspect the soldering on the inside.
 
Ok I've visually inspected the inside of the power connector and the solder looks fine, in so far that there's no immediately obvious signs of damage.
 
Then I'd see if you can borrow a power supply brick just to check whether yours is faulty.

I have no knowledge of your brand of laptop so after checking the power brick I wouldn't know what to suggest next.

cheers
 
Does anybody know anything about multimeters?

I killed one the other day with this psu, I guess you shouldn't put multimeters across a circuit with nothing on it!

Anyway, before it died I measured the volts which seemed normal, but with the amps the needle was going up and down considerably suggesting the current was not consistent.

But as I killed the multimeter you can probably guess I don't know how to interpret the result.
 
Taffy Apple said:
The connector on the back of the laptop seems sturdy enough, there's no give in it, but maybe I should inspect the soldering on the inside.
Click to expand...

It's not uncommon for the wire to break just where it enters the strain relief on the connector. If the wire shows a bit of a bulge at that point, you could have a broken wire that is making intermittent contact.

If so, it's not too difficult to replace the connector, assuming you can find a new one. Some brands (e.g. Dell) use a connector that's very difficult to find from parts suppliers.
 
Taffy Apple said:
Does anybody know anything about multimeters?

I killed one the other day with this psu, I guess you shouldn't put multimeters across a circuit with nothing on it!

Anyway, before it died I measured the volts which seemed normal, but with the amps the needle was going up and down considerably suggesting the current was not consistent.

But as I killed the multimeter you can probably guess I don't know how to interpret the result.
Click to expand...

LOL!! You probably only blew the fuse in it. When you measure voltage, the measurement is using a very high ohm resistor in the meter. When using it for Amperage, it is pretty much a short. When measuring with a meter, Voltage across, Current through. You would need to put the meter inline with the power circuit to measure the amps.
 
Bahaha you had the meter set to measure amperage, no wonder it blew a fuse.
 
Ok so I took the psu to a proper electrician and he tested it.

It appears I was right, it is pushing out 19V and the amps are fluctuating.

One thing he did point out was that it says 3.16A LPS, which he though might mean 'Low Pulse Something-or-other'

Can anyone shed any light on this, do power supplies generally do that kind of thing? To charge the battery maybe.
 
I'm not sure how that helps.

I want to know if laptop power supplies are supposed to have a pulse in the amps. Not where to buy one.

I want to know if the power supply is faulty before I waste money on buying a new one when the old one is doing what its supposed to be doing.
 
Taffy Apple said:
I'm not sure how that helps.

I want to know if laptop power supplies are supposed to have a pulse in the amps. Not where to buy one.

I want to know if the power supply is faulty before I waste money on buying a new one when the old one is doing what its supposed to be doing.
Click to expand...

someone already suggested you find another one to try and see if it solves the problem, then you know if it's the power supply or not (before you buy one), other than that, if i were you, i would just buy one, you managed to fry a multimeter already, might want to play it safe;)
 
nobody_here said:
someone already suggested you find another one to try and see if it solves the problem, then you know if it's the power supply or not (before you buy one), other than that, if i were you, i would just buy one, you managed to fry a multimeter already, might want to play it safe;)
Click to expand...
Good advice. ;)
 
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