AC adapter

[JimL]

I just discovered that with the T42 the seller sent an HP AC adapter with an output of 19V instead of the nominal 16V (15.5V- 17V). How much damage may I have sustained?

Does anyone know the amperage required by the T42? The adapter with my 770 outputs 3.3A. I have another HP adapter of only 18V that would probaaably be better except that it only outputs 1.7A.

[rkawakami]

The T42 should have come with a 72 watt adapter (16V 4.5A). How much it actually draws is another story. The label on the bottom of the laptop probably also says 4.5A but realistically, it won't consume that much. Probably somewhere in the region of 2 to 3 amps, depending upon how many memory module you have, the hard drive and optical drive specs too. Inputting more than the 16V is obviously not recommended however, you may have avoided any permanent damage as I'm sure the supplies internally are regulated fairly well. I would say that as long as you use an IBM supply and everything works as it should, then no harm.

edit: To clarify further... You can operate the T42 with your 54 watt adapter (3.36A) for the 770, however I would not do it for a long time. You will be overworking that supply and it may lead to premature failure. Get a proper IBM 72 watt adapter is my best suggestion.

[bill bolton]

The label on the bottom of the laptop probably also says 4.5A but realistically, it won't consume that much.

A T4x in active use, running on normal mains power consumption settings while sitting on a port replicator and running 3 x USB devices in their high power mode can get up well towards 70W of energy drain from the power adapter.

The USB spec allows each device to draw up to 500mA from host platform in the USB high power mode.

Under less strenous conditions it will draw less, but in today's "plug and play" device world, its relatively easy to run up a largish power budget (in T4x terms) without necessarily becoming explicitly aware of it.

Cheers,

Bill