Problem Charging my notebook with a 150 charger

Discussion in 'Trucking Electronics, Gadgets and Software Forum' started by gerardo1961, Jun 30, 2013.

  1. Richter

    Richter Road Train Member

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    Laptops need PURE SINE wave and need a lot of power to start. Just a buy a 1500 watt pure sign and hard wire it with new wiring to your truck batts. (get the right gadge wire.)

    They pull alot more then their rated wattage when they start. If they cant get that wattage to start they kind of brown out.
     
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  3. Richter

    Richter Road Train Member

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    Most laptops draw less then 100 watts, its the start up that kills them. Assuming the wiring is good, a cigarette lighter can provide up to 144 watts if it has a 10 amp fuse and 216 if using a 15 amp.
     
  4. Pur48Ted

    Pur48Ted Road Train Member

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    NO, they don't
     
  5. KW Cajun

    KW Cajun Road Train Member

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    Not so. Exactly what Pur48Ted said... "No they don't".
    The power input to the laptop (from the DC converter) is volts DC. DC current has no sine wave, only AC has a sine wave. As in my previous post, the laptop's charger/converter can function just fine powered from a modified wave inverter (but of adequate size). 150 watt inverters are just a toy, as well as any inverter wired to a cigarette lighter plug.

    True, and in any case, you want your power source (ie. inverter) to have at least double the capacity of what you are powering. Example: You don't want to be maxing out a 350 watt load with a mere 400 watt inverter. Inverters and all power supplies work best & with the most efficiency when they are operating at 50% load or slightly less.
     
  6. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    I had one of these, just traded it in. They have a 65 watt charger and it does not like cheap inverters. I used a Cobra inverter for a long time with my HP laptops and my Kindle but the Toshiba, forget it, it would never charge. The charger is like an inverter itself, and as mentioned isn't setup for dirty electricity.

    Instead of getting another inverter, just order yourself another another thrid party charger to see if that fixes the problem. I've gotten them for $20 from eBay and Amazon before.
     
  7. Richter

    Richter Road Train Member

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    Cajun;3385546]Not so. Exactly what Pur48Ted said... "No they don't".
    The power input to the laptop (from the DC converter) is volts DC. DC current has no sine wave, only AC has a sine wave. As in my previous post, the laptop's charger/converter can function just fine powered from a modified wave inverter (but of adequate size). 150 watt inverters are just a toy, as well as any inverter wired to a cigarette lighter plug.

    The a/c side of the charger prefers pure sine. The laptop could care less becuase its powered by dc, but the ac adapter can produce dc if its not getting what it wants. Different brand adapters have different tolerances, but most work better with pure sine. Older adapters are more tolerant.

    True, and in any case, you want your power source (ie. inverter) to have at least double the capacity of what you are powering. Example: You don't want to be maxing out a 350 watt load with a mere 400 watt inverter. Inverters and all power supplies work best & with the most efficiency when they are operating at 50% load or slightly less.[/QUOTE]

    My 1500 watt inverter beeps when the usage exceeds 1500 watts. (notifying it wont keep up) When I plug my dell charger in it beeps for 1 second then powers it fine. (this is with the laptop plugged in) It pulls massive amounts of power to start the conversion process. After a second it drops to around 90W under full laptop load. Other devices including lights, small chargers, etc. dont make it beep at all. This indicates, on adapter start up it does requier a surge.
     
  8. Richter

    Richter Road Train Member

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    As mentioned in another one of my post, Unless you have tons of batts or a huge altinator, you will never get 5000 watts out of you 5000 watts inverter. Do the math. A 200 amp alternator can only out out 2880 watts, and that cranking at top speed.
     
  9. Richter

    Richter Road Train Member

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    Um, what are you talking about. my pure sine inverter cost 175.
     
  10. Ridgeline

    Ridgeline Road Train Member

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    Just another thought, go get a 12 volt charger for your laptop, it works. The output you need is 19 volts or around there and they make them for that voltage.


    If your inverter is 'beeping' when you plug in your laptop and it is a 1500 watt inverter, then there is another issue because it isn't a surge from the charger. A 90 watt charger won't have a surge more than 5 or 10% of its rated power at the extreme most, most of the time it is less than 2%.

    There are two types of chargers, one with a transformer and one that is what is called a switching power supply - both are cheap to build but each has its advantages and disadvantages. The former can have a soft start circuit in it to lessen the surge from the transformer coming up to voltage, many do but a lot of the really cheap and older ones don't while the switching power supplies should all have a soft start circuitry in them as part of the system. Swichting power supplies are like Inverters, actually they are inverters in so much they use the same principle to produce the higher voltages for these laptops (12 to 17 - 19 volts). The difference is for the laptop, they require a lot of protection so not to blow out the mother board or charging system on board while an inverter doesn't have the need for the protection.
     
  11. snowwy

    snowwy Road Train Member

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    NONE of us have a sinewave invertor. if you do. it cost more then $175. cuz them things aren't cheap.

    my laptop ON, plugged in. and my printer ON. both pull 135 watts. so a 150 watt invertor is JUST FINE. and i ran one for 3 months. still have it as a spare.

    i've been using a 400 watt invertor plugged RIGHT into the 12v socket. my whole 2 years and 3 months on the road. last month i bought a new invertor for the first time. and it's 400 watts. the old one still works but the button to turn it off and on doesn't like to do it's job anymore.

    the old invertor was a walmart brand. it has a dash. you can see watts being used. dc volts going in. and ac volts going out.

    laptop and printer pulled 135 watts. turn on my 2 fans and it hit 165 watts. my phone uses the socket in front. my gps and satellite use the other socket in front. my clock uses the other socket in back.

    and my 400 watts have yet to catch fire plugged into the socket with a 6 foot extension. i used the extention cuz the walmart brand always shouted everytime i fire up the truck. and i got tired of crawling in back to shut the thing off. LOL. so now they sit on the floor behind the passenger seat.
     
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