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    Car charger

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by zuffy, Dec 5, 2011.

  1. zuffy

    zuffy Notebook Guru

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    Thinking of getting a car charger for my XPS 15 but the Dell charger is way overpriced. Anyone tried the PWR+ one from Amazon? Is 90 watts enough since the AC adapter is rated 130 watts.

    Not really interested in a power inverter since:
    1) it gets hotter
    2) the cheap ones are not pure sine wave
    3) eats the car battery quickly
     
    zuffy, Dec 5, 2011
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  2. toronto

    toronto Notebook Deity

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    I may be able to sell you a brand new Dell car charger for my XPS 15, still in box never used. It also includes another plug that may be to plug into an airplane power port, at least I don't know what else it would be for.
     
    toronto, Dec 5, 2011
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  3. zuffy

    zuffy Notebook Guru

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    I ordered the PWR+ from Amazon. Will give it a try. If it doesn't work out, I will return it.
     
    zuffy, Dec 6, 2011
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  4. zuffy

    zuffy Notebook Guru

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    Got the charger. Other than the annoying POST and Windows messages about the 90w power supply, it's working great. Even though the message said it will run slower and charging will be slower, I noticed that it was charging like 1% per 2 minutes. The power supply did not get hot but the contacts on the cigarette plug did get real hot. Overall, not bad for $26. Much better than the $90 that Dell is asking for.
     
    zuffy, Dec 8, 2011
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  5. toronto

    toronto Notebook Deity

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    Have you run any system benchmark tools to compare performance using the 130W adapter versus the 90W adapter? I'd be very interested to know if the system does run more slowly, or any difference with the lower wattage.

    Dell's web site says only 90W is required (unless you have the upgraded GT 540M 2GB graphics card), so I don't understand why it gives the warnings about slower system.
     
    toronto, Dec 8, 2011
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  6. zuffy

    zuffy Notebook Guru

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    I can check later. If you want, just get a utility like CPU-Z. Run some intensive tasks and see if the CPU run at the maximum speed.
     
    zuffy, Dec 8, 2011
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  7. toronto

    toronto Notebook Deity

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    That would be great. I'll try to do the same.
     
    toronto, Dec 8, 2011
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  8. toronto

    toronto Notebook Deity

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    Did you do this?
     
    toronto, Dec 10, 2011
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