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Possible Duplicate:
charging laptop with a diffrent manufacture charger

I have a Dell Vostro 1500 laptop, but unfortunately I lost the power supply in Indianapolis last month. I have a power supply for an old Sony laptop lying around, that looks like it fits in the same port.

Is it safe to use the old power supply in the new laptop? If they're not compatible will it simply not work, or will it reverse the polarity and open a gate to Zuul or something similar?

(A new PSU is on order, but UPS failed to deliver it yesterday and I need it today, hence this stopgap solution.)

Thanks!

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3 Answers 3

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Turn it over and look for the voltage and amp rating. If these are the same, then it is 100% safe and guaranteed to work. You can use alternates when it is different, but it is not always safe just because it fits.

You want to look for something like this on both devices:

alt text

Input to the power adapter is not to important, you want to match up the output of the adapter to the input of your laptop.

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  • Thanks. The Sony power supply says 16 volts, 4 amps; the dell one only says 65 watts. 16 * 4 = 64, so that sounds right, but I assume the volts and amps should match up properly...
    – Colen
    Commented Sep 5, 2009 at 18:07
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    @Colen - there are many ways to make 65 from volt * ampere. If you get it wrong at best you'll end up with a dead power supply, at worst you'll end up with a dead laptop.
    – ChrisF
    Commented Sep 5, 2009 at 19:11
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    You also want to match the + and - making sure the correct one is in the center on the power supply.
    – Joshua Nurczyk
    Commented Sep 19, 2009 at 19:23
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Current Dell adapters are 19.5 volts (including all of the Vostro lines that I've run into.) So do not plug in that Sony adapter.

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The Voltage, Amperage, Notebook Plug and Polarity have to be the same.

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    Voltage and polarity have to be the same. Amperage of the power supply has to be >= the needs of the laptop.
    – Richard Hoskins
    Commented Sep 5, 2009 at 17:50

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