T40 Power

[Myka]

Can a T40 be powered off a 12 volt DC cigarette lighter Power Adapter for a car - like a GPS?

[jdhurst]

Think of it this way: 12 Volts is 25 percent less than the requisite 16 Volts. You will never see (in 40 years of looking at it) a house voltage of 88 Volts AC (25 percent less than normal). So it may be able to be done, but I do not recommend it at all. Wiser, safer and better to get an inverter that produces 120 VAC from the car system and plug your ThinkPad into that. I do that all the time and have no problems. ... JDH

[smidgley]

Can a T40 be powered off a 12 volt DC cigarette lighter Power Adapter for a car - like a GPS?

Yes, it can but not directly - you'll need an adapter, something like this.

[aaa]

Not recommending that anyone actually do this, but a friend of mine has done this with his Dell. The 120v ac analogy did not seem to apply. You can see the battery is a mere 10.8v. The higher voltages seem to be used for charging the battery, but if you're not doing that then the system runs fine off 12v.

In any case the adapter smidgely mentioned is the best solution. The inverter that jdhurst mentioned tends to be cheaper but will suck more electricity.

[egalvan]

I've been using an IBM car adapter for many years now.

Similiar to this:

http://cgi.ebay.com/22P7091-AIR-CAR-AC- ... dZViewItem

works great, used it on my 600, then T23, now my T40.
Money well spent.

ErnestG