Orignal_Cronicus Posted July 6, 2005 CID Share Posted July 6, 2005 Recently I Acuried for $20 a Dell Latitude CPi "300MHz " ;( " with 128 mb ram with a missing power supply cord now being that its not vituraly worth $20 rofl the point is to not spend any more money on it so, the power input, for the cord conection says 20v "dc" 3.5a now being that im currently powering a grid aray of fans and heat sinks run a muck runing all acros comps monitors hardrives, etc etc, powered of 2 old desktop power supplys . got me to thinking well all ud have to do is input 20v dc at 3.5 a no matter if its a laptop power supply or a desktop as longh as the voltage and amperage match shel run, i sprinted down to radio shack to get the lil 1dolar adapter piece that converts the 3 pins in the powersocket to a usable line"the power supply is 2 parts, the transfmer, the output to laptop" so i just nneded the top part, now when i asked the radio shack guy which ones + - n ground he said it dont work like that rofl, so for the next 5 minuts we argued over weither or not a desktop power supply matching the requirments of the laptops power input would work, he tol me this and i quote" the uh laptops uh power supply it uh it kinda send eletricty in packets like uh say the internet does, sumtimes less than the amperage it needs, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholla Posted July 7, 2005 CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 Orignal_Cronicus : Your partly right 20v dc @ 3.5a is the same.Does the laptop have 3 pins on the power imput?If it does my guess is this is a Voltage regulator(or something simular) to the origional power supply.That turns down the voltage when the laptop is not in use so its cooler. My other guess is it a fuse of some type inside the origional type power supply.But if you know which is the + & - I think you could use a regular transformer .I would just unplug the power to the laptop when you are not using it. I could be wrong like you said someone that knows needs to post. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cak46 Posted July 7, 2005 CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 The radio shack guy could be right, since the power supply also serves as a charger for the battery packs. I would not connect a full line power dc or ac to the battery pack! May fry the machine, at the least, or cause the batteries to explode. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orignal_Cronicus Posted July 7, 2005 Author CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 no no im not tryng to power it through the lithuim ion basttery poert theres 5 pins in ther eplus ill never get full power outa the laptop, im trying to jimmirig the converted dc input but if the radio shak guy is right then ill have to buy anoither cord but i called dell "hesistant to help me becuase of the nature of what i was going to do to one of thier laptops" they said that all newer laptops change the amperage on reciving voltage due to power savings, if ur trying to charge a betetry and run pc, etc, so i aksed her if i remove the battery and disbale stanby screen savers, power saving setings, set it up liie a desktop woul;d it work..."long long pause'" then they said probably the laptop does have a 3 pin input the pc's actualy really old sad piece of crap dell intution CPi its not even the comp i want its the files on the hdd i need i can hontly donate this to the first poor kid from afdarica who has a ac power supply that comes up to me o and cak i got a dog identical to that hes a full bread mut caled binky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peepnklown Posted July 7, 2005 CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 I would just drop the $66.95 (you might find one for less) than try to rig a desktop power supply to power a laptop. Even if you could do it the time it would take to rig something up would probably be around the same price as buying a adapter unless you value your time cheap. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholla Posted July 7, 2005 CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 Orignal_Cronicus : I didn't think you were trying to power through the battery port.I don't think cak46 did either what he meant was the batteries are recharged from the DC imput .If there is no voltage regulator on the power supply you are using the batteries will over charge :Heat up & expand & burst open probably not literally explode with a bang.If you were trying to power through the battery port I doubt a DC transformer would have enough power to run the laptop with the battery removed.But if you just plugged in the unregulated power supply when you were using the laptop & watched it for excess heat in the battery area I don't think you would have a problem. Provided you get the positive & negative wired correctly. peepnklown : Considering the quote below I don't think he wants to spend much money on this laptop. the pc's actualy really old sad piece of crap dell intution CPi its not even the comp i want its the files on the hdd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mactron Posted July 7, 2005 CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 its not even the comp i want its the files on the hdd i need If all you want to accesses the laptop HD for files This ~$10 solution should do the trick. http://www.bay-wolf.com/hddadapter.htm A lot safer too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholla Posted July 7, 2005 CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 Mactron the adapter looks like a good idea.Unless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mactron Posted July 7, 2005 CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 Mactron the adapter looks like a good idea.Unless Orignal_Cronicus is worried about corrupt files or viruses that might be in the laptop HD & wants to run it first to check for them.Instead of hooking it up to his desktop. If he's all patched up and updated all of his anti-nasty software I think the risk would be minimal if the the HD is fully scanned/checked before trying to pull anything off.Maybe, Maybe not... I'm fortunate to have a couple of "I don't care" test machines around for just this sort of thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTB Posted July 7, 2005 CID Share Posted July 7, 2005 We need someone that is knowlegable in laptop power to post & tell us if the voltage is regulated in the power supply or in the laptop.I know that somewhere in the system when the batteries reach full charge the voltage to them is stopped till they need more charging.Just not where.The only reason I think it might be at the power supply is the 3 pin connection. My only knowledge on it is on an old one, which might actually be relevant. The voltage/amp was reduced in the external power supply. Bloody thing always caused a bit of sparks when plugging it in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cak46 Posted July 8, 2005 CID Share Posted July 8, 2005 Dude, check this out 10 bucks plus shipping, its yours! http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=244974&Sku=C184-17705&SRCCODE=GOOPROD&CMP=OTC-FROOGLE Double check the connectors first, though. http://www.cablesdirect.com/ This site has many adapter/cables as well and I have used these guys before. Good luck! Edit: My stupid: Mactron already posted a connector... sorry 'bout that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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