We get so many of these, with only minor variations.
My google-fu is failing to find one single canonical QA we could use to close these against.
Can anyone find - or indeed write - one we can use as a comprehensive dupe-hammer?
Examples, just from today…
Candidates found so far…
I'm mixed on this. Having been a former thinkpad fan, I'd gone through 3 different charger designs over ... decades, not counting USB PD. My old work HPs were 'meh', it'll work, while dell has a 'smart' charger design that sometimes just refuses to work even with an original charger.
To me, the 'best'solution might be something like this post on hardware identification acting as a signpost to brand appropriate or tech appropriate posts.
I started editing a couple of questions which led to a bit of a rabbit-hole of duplicate-chained questions to do with under or over-specced laptop chargers, which led me to this meta.
The basic crux of all these questions boils down to My original charger outputs X Volts, Y Amps. Can I safely use another charger which outputs ±X Volts and ±Y Amps?.
Ultimately, the answer boils down to whether the plug has the correct size/polarity, if the voltage is within a few percent, and if the amps are the same or higher. While some brands (eg Dell) might have chips in their chargers to communicate and effectively power-limit non-standard chargers, this is an exception to the rule.
Thus I think the way forward would be to have a canonical question for the general case, but also have an answer (or a section of the main answer) address brand-specific idiosyncrasies. Having multiple extra questions per-brand is probably overkill.
Here's a list I've compiled along with some basic stats and notes. This is by far not the full list, but serves as a starting point for an ongoing cleanup effort:
| Question | Views | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Can I safely charge my laptop with a non-standard, third-party charger? | 32k | Duplicate of Laptop power adapter output compatibility | Question doesn't provide charger specs (only brands), good answer covers all bases (pin size, polarity, volts, amps) |
| Laptop power adapter output compatibility | 4k | Open | Question provides specs, good answer covering all bases |
| Can a 20V 4.51A power supply be used with a computer that requires a 19V 3.42A power supply? | 4k | Duplicate of Can I safely charge my laptop with a non-standard, third-party charger? | Question provides specs, 'OK' answer only covers volts/amps difference. 3-link duplicate chain eventually resolving to Laptop power adapter output compatibility |
| Is it ok to use a 19V, 4.74A 90W power supply for a 19V, 3.42A laptop? | 2k | Duplicate of Can a 20V 4.51A power supply be used with a computer that requires a 19V 3.42A power supply? and Thinkpad power adapters | Uses old duplicate markdown. 4-link duplicate chain eventually resolving to Laptop power adapter output compatibility |
| Thinkpad power adapters | 280 | Open | Question is about the same brand of laptop for both chargers. There's an OK answer about voltage and plug size |
| Is it ok if a replacement laptop charger is slightly out of spec? | 392 | Open | Has 1 decent answer about volts/amps. Highest voted answer is a one-liner about volts. |
| About adapter (gaming laptop) | 27 | Duplicate of Is it ok if a replacement laptop charger is slightly out of spec? | Only asked 4 days ago |
| Laptop PSU died, replacement higher wattage? | 940 | Open | Question mentions wattage differences so top answer focuses on that with a brief mention about volts and plug size. Brand doesn't matter. |
| HP charger with Dell Laptop | 47k | Open | Question provides specs, Good answer covering not only the specs but also an issue unique to Dell. |
| Will a different notebook power adapter be ok if the volts and amps are different? | 4k | Open | Question is ok following an edit. Accepted answer is potentially bad, there are two other decent answers however. |
| Can I supply less amps (3.42 vs 3.95) if the laptop is rated at 3.42 anyway? | 7k | Open | Question went through 3 phases as OP fixed things and discovered more information. I've edited the question to incorporate those changes. Top voted answer is correct. Second answer has the calculations backward due to the OP's initial mistake but effectively comes to the same conclusion. |
| Is there a limit on how much more ampers can I supply for a laptop? | 2k | Open | Mostly concerned with the oversupply of Amps so answers address that |
| Can a 20V, 4.5A travel adapter replace a 19V, 3.42A charger on ThinkPad T440 Lenovo? | 3k | Open | Notable that the OP got an official replacement with different specs. Top answer is fine |
| Can I charge my laptop with a charger that has different specifications? | 106k | Duplicate of Laptop power adapter output compatibility | A decent answer addressing volts and amps. Another answer that goes a little overboard |
Based only on this list, I recommend this question be considered the canonical: Can I safely charge my laptop with a non-standard, third-party charger? - while it has less views than some of the others (32k), its a solid footing and its main answer covers most of the bases.
With that in mind, I would merge this question into the above canonical: Laptop power adapter output compatibility. While a lot of duplicates currently resolve to this, I don't feel the question itself is a good duplicate target: with only 4k views, not many people are making it this far. Merging it will bring it's good answers over to the more popular (and better worded) question. Note that merged questions can auto-redirect to the canonical.
When this is done, we can begin the task of cleaning up the current duplicates, reducing the chaining/duplicate-hopping by re-pointing duplicates directly to the canonical question.
