AC Adapters (E-series)

Hello,

I have seen some AC Adaptors for latitude e-series (Latitude E6500 & E6400) and they was very thin and light.

However, yesterday I received my M4400 and the AC is too big and heavy in comparation with que latitude ACs.

Reviewing the orders, I've seen that Latitude's have "450-11869 Power Cord: European 90W AC Adaptor 2 pin" whereas M4400 have "450-11970 Power Supply And Power Cord: Worldwide 130W AC Adapter with European Power Cord".

If all Latitude-E and Precision-M components are compatibles, why the Precision M4400 AC is 130W? Could I buy a 90W AC for my M4400?

Thank you!

 

The m4400 has much heavier components compared to the latitude. If you configure the m4400 with a quad core CPU, 8gb ram and the FX 1700m GPU you'll probably need all those 130watts.

Maybe for your (and my) config 90watts is enough to run the system but not sure.

 

In addition, the power adaptors are designed to be able to run your computer AND charge the battery simultaneously. Note that Dell sells a 65W slim AC adaptor for the Latitudes that have a 90W standard (but those will not charge your batteries at all or just a little bit). Dell may sell a slim charger for the M4400, but I'm not sure.

Its actually good this way. Consider the unibody Apple Macbook series. Because they use such weak power adaptors (65W and 85W for 17"), when the battery is removed and the computer is running just on AC, the processor is actually downclocked to prevent an unexpected shutdown due to too high power draw. I think I prefer the bigger power adaptor.

 

That used to be a problem but Dell fixed it a few months ago, at least for my hardware config (P8600 + Intel graphics). There is no longer any CPU throttling or trickle charge when running off the 65W PSU.

John

 

Right. I was saying that that happens on the new Unibody Macbooks when people try to take batteries out to prolong their life. Is the 65W able to charge the system while powering it simultaneously?

 

65W works fine with my hardware config with recharge up to around 22W under normal usage but drops slightly in order to keep within the 65W total rating if I full load everything.

John

 

I've got same configuration as John , but I have AC 90W (WK890) and it is very slim and smaller than old ones 15x67x142 mm. If this is 90 Watt (and I was like , sure that it is 65) then I'm really happy to see that this is so small/slim.

 

I ordered the 65W auto/air/AC PSU as an option. In fact, my E6400 came with the old D series 90W brick (presumably they didn't have stock of the new slimmer E series 90W unit last August). One advantage of the 65W unit is that it has the 2 pin "Fig-8" mains connector and a 2 core power lead which is thinner and lighter than the standard 3 core mains cable.

John