Airplane power for Precision M6400?

I've searched for some answers to this, but have been unsuccessful...

I've got a Dell Precision M6400, and would like to be able to use it on an upcoming trans-Pacific flight. Does anyone have experience with an airplane adaptor which would work with the M6400?

Thanks in advance...

- ncdave

 

You will need to determine what type of power is available at your seat on the specific airline and aircraft type you are traveling on. You can find info here:

http://www.seatguru.com/articles/in-seat_laptop_power.php

If it is AC 110 Volt power, you can just use the brick that came with your M6400. If it is emPower or the cigarette lighter type of outlet, you may have a problem. Note that the above site shows that the DC power maxes out at 75 watts. I don't think that will keep the M6400 running at any load, if at all.

 

airplane sockets wont even keep the M4400 running. It simply wont charge.

 

In my particular case, it looks like I'm flying with access to cigarette-adaptor-style DC power, up to 75W. Perhaps there are no solutions here? I guess I was hoping that a low-power Dell airplane power supply might have enough juice to run the laptop in a low power mode, or enough to charge the battery...

Thanks for the responses, and any other input is appreciated.

- ncdave

 

IIRC, to keep the notebook running in low power mode, you need at least 85w

 

well there is always the solution of buying more batteries or a bigger battery, as undesirable as that is, it looks like the only sure fire bet in this case. Not even the Dell 84 WHr slice fits the M6400 http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...7&cs=04&c=us&l=en&dgc=SS&cid=27722&lid=628335 though, which would have certainly seen you through.

 

It looks like this accessory you mention is listed as 'compatible with the M6400' on the site. I was going to consider it, but one of the comments (again, on the Dell site) says something vague about it not working well with their M6400. Any insight Andrew?

 

i recall pluggin in my voodoo u709 aka D900K in one of my flights... did not have enough power to work...

honestly, i was too chicken to find out if my pc drew too much power from the flight...

 

I'm also travelling in a few weeks and was wondering about the same thing. According to SeatGuru, my flight will have AC power at my seat. Will I be able to run everything okay on my M6400 for a whole transatlantic flight?

 

Dell 90W adapter that comes with my Latitude D830 doesn't even power up on the "Empower" outlets that are being used by most of the airlines when they provide at-seat AC plug-in power.

Nearly all my flights are on Air Canada, but I'm pretty sure most airlines use a similar solution.