Dell Third Party Power Adapter Compatability

In planning a trip away on a houseboat for a few days that only has a 12 volt DC power outlet, I decided to purchase a universal power adapter. I have a Dell M1530 and my partner has a Dell M1210. After reasonable research I decided on a Kensington K33197 120W auto-air-wall adapter. Definitely a good unit.

Interesting that both dell laptops would take power from the unit but would not charge the battery. Actually this is the same sympton that I got with a Dell adapter on the M1210 - turns out it had a busted center pin. So on some research the only article I could find was this link:

http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/74926

In a nutshell, it appears that Dell doesn't want to allow third party adapters to charge their batteries. You get the "plugged in, not charging" status on the task bar battery icon. I can understand their nervousness particularly in light of the recent battery blow up fiasco.

The problem is that Dell themselves don't supply a DC/Air adapter to suit the M1530. Maybe they figure that nobody would want to take an M1530 on an airplane? More likely I reckon that they just havn't got around to developing one. In any case I sure wish that they would give support to the third party adapter manufacturers to allow them to do it.

Another solution might be to use a DC-AC inverter. But all of the light weight units I see are modified sinewave and I just don't trust them as far as not damaging the Dell adapter. And the efficiency sucks.

Can anyone shed more light on this issue?

 

How many watts does the M1530 require? I have a 65W Dell travel adapter that takes DC input from a car or airplane. That should work with the M1210, but the M1530 is probably going to want more power.

 

I think the supply needs to be rated around 90 watts or better.

 

You should be able to use a 65W adapter with it, but the processor speed will be reduced.

Another solution would be to use an DC/AC inverter like you said. I have one that definately isn't light-weight. It's heavy, made of metal (kind of like it's a big heat sink), and I wouldn't have a problem using that with my laptop.

 

The Kensington 120W auto air adaptor the OP mentions does charge the battery in a xps m1530, I am using one right now to recharge mine.
You can get refurbished ones cheap on ebay just make sure you get the N19 tip

 

I just checked ebay and there are a bunch of Kensington 120-watt (33197) auto air adaptors selling for $25. These list at $150 on Kensington's site. Are these ebay items legit? Refurbs? Safe?

Is the N19 tip the one for the M1530 as well? It's not a specifically listed model.

 

Fountainhead I got my one off a user called eurus-wings,

http://myworld.ebay.ie/eurus-wings

It is a refurb with a 1 year warranty off Kensington. I have been using it everyday for about a month now with no problems.

The N19 is the tip for the m1530 you can check it on the kensington website

 

65W shouldn't be a problem. When you boot up it will give a message about having a lower wattage adapter and reduced system performance, but that's about it.

If you went with the inverter, it would be a lot of conversions i find thyis funny haha...

Gasoline - DC electric battery - ac electric - dc in laptop