Hey guys, The cable on my sisters power adaptor for her Vostro 1500 has frayed and subsequently broken, and I am looking to get a replacement. I have found some for £20 on some sites, but they aren't as mainstream as I would like. Just wondering if anyone has any experience in this, and could reccomend somewhere? Dell want like £60 for a replacement, which seems a tad high based on shopping around. Cheers for any help, - Tibs
Any Dell PSU should do. If your laptop takes 65W, you can use a 90W one or a 65W one no problem. You can look at Dell Latitude E series PSU which are slimmer. Please note that I have not tried it with your model, but I tried it mixing PSU's with the XPS M1210, Inspiron 1510 and of course my laptop Latitude E6400.
Ah cool, I was wondering if it would mess with the battery, but to be fair my sister has no respect for her laptop anyway, so it won't make a bit of difference.
Just get any cheap adapter, make sure it has the same amps and volts as the one you want to replace. Otherwise you can do some damage.
Obviously don't get a Dell PSU of lower wattage... as that won't be enough to run the system or if it does run, the laptop will go in low power state, meaning the CPU, GPU will be at minimum speed, and some devices like the optical drive will be turned off. In this situation, you can choose to either have the laptop on at minimum power, or slowly recharge your battery when it's completely turned off.
I think hers is a 65W one, but it does work with my 90W adapter, so I will let her find one, then verify as I'm not gonna run around after her!
I think Dell laptops can detect if you use a non-Dell power adapter, mine complains occasionally about it even though I'm using the adapter it came with. If it doesn't like the adapter you are using it seems to shut off the charging and power circuitry so the laptop runs of battery power until you connect the correct one connected. It may simply be that mine needs a 90W adapter and occasionally it thinks I have a lower power one connected and the message is worded badly. EDIT: A quick search seems to confirm this, Dell uses a third wire which carries an identification signal.