I got a 600mhz Cel laptop from my friend, who's dad was throwing it out so he grabbed it for me. Unfortunately, his dad (noob) took the hard drive out with the caddy for it, the RAM, and the modem in an attempt to stop anyone from retrieving his files. Insane. So now I have to make new doors for the bottom, get new RAM and a new HDD, a new caddy, and a new PSU. Since I don't know if this laptop works I need to test it, but I don't have a laptop brick that puts out 20v @ 3.5A. I do, however, have one that puts out 18.5v @ 3.8A, and has the same Dell proprietary connector. Would this work? I once ran a Compaq Armada off as low as 10v when it was meant for 18v, so I'm thinking yes? I just don't want to roast this perfectly good laptop... Thanks for any help.
I have found that often even if the voltage isnt exactly the same on the Dell psu's that they work pretty interchangably. I dont even get why they range 18-20v and have the same connector... dell go figure... There is not much harm that could be done with undervolting a laptop. The only thing is the voltage converters inside it would probably have to work a little bit harder. But I am no electronics expert on that. Go for it.
I gave it a try, just trying to get to the BIOS to see if the motherboard even worked anymore, but ran into trouble. The laptop starts to turn on (leds and fan come on, CD makes some clicks and blinks) then 3 seconds later the fan turns off, and 3 seconds after that the LEDs turn off and the small speakers make a pop sound. Then it automatically does it again. Any ideas? Could the lack of a HDD and modem be the culprit?
