AC adapter overload protection (PA-10, Inspiron 9400)

Is there such a thing?

Got a replacement adapter yesterday. It lasted only for 12 hours and fried, when I was playing Oblivion. Notebook fans were on full load, I had connected three external HDDs, USB Mouse and cooling pad. Also, it was charging a new battery.

I guess, it got overloaded. I thought there should be some kind of protection for cases like that, right?

P.S.: Now I have to stick with original adapter, which never fried, even though it has the same specs. The only thing wrong about it - its broken ID chip, which forces BIOS, being unable to interact with it, to underclock the system.

 

Was your replacement adapter a genuine Dell adapter?

 

Hmm, good question. It looks very similar to original adapter, but doesn't have 'DELL' anywhere. Its label says 'Replacement AC Adapter, model: AD-90195D PA-10'.

 

Yeah, that's probably why it died. Cheap, no-name laptop power supplies are generally just as bad as their cheap, no-name desktop power supplies (at least it didn't exploded). They'll work fine up 'til like half their rated capacity and go kaput. Buy a genuine Dell adapter and it'll be able to deliver its rated power.

 

Thanks. Do you mean I should be getting the ac adapter right from Dell?

 

You can find genuine adapters on eBay and elsewhere online... just make it specifies that you're getting the real deal. If you're unsure, go ask the buyer or skip it. It is, nonetheless, probably best to get it straight from Dell, but it will cost significantly more.