[ltp] Thinkpad power adapters and less than 100V mains

[Jason Brooks]

Since the power coming out of the supply will be regulated it
shouldn't hurt the laptop.
You could cause problems for the power supply because it will be
working harder. The constant charge and surge that the capacitors will
go through in a low power situation would shorten the life of them.
Normally this wouldn't be a issue since they charge and stay charged
in a full power situation.  Is this why your power supply is acting
flaky? Maybe but more than likely it is from every day use. All
manufactures are cutting back and bundling the lowest wattage power
supply they can. They don't last. I had a HP power supply that was 90W
for about a year... then it was 70 watt...  Replaced it with a APC
power supply and have not had a problem since. I would suggest the
same to you.

On Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 6:54 PM, Damon Lynch <damonlynch@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Does it damage a Thinkpad power adapter to use the laptop plugged in when
> the electricity supply is potentially less than 100V?
>
> This past summer I used my T400s in such a situation. The laptop was
> sometimes doing computationally intensive work. The power supply became
> quite a bit hotter than it normally does. In fact sometimes it was very hot
> indeed. I don't know if this damaged it or not. All I do know is that when I
> now use my T400s for computationally intensive work for extended periods, if
> I use that same power supply, the laptop can shut down without warning. If I
> use another power adapter (which I did not use in that kind of low voltage
> situation), it never shuts down.
>
> Perhaps the answer is "Why yes of course, you have damaged the power supply.
> Never run on less than 100V." However I believe the power adapter simply
> might be a bit dodgy, as the laptop would occasionally shut down without
> warning even before I used it when the mains was less than 100V . It didn't
> do it a lot, but it did sometimes. The only difference is that it does it
> far more regularly now.
>
> A related question: if I am in a situation where the mains supply is less
> than 100V and I'm running the laptop off it with the battery present (which
> might be charging), does it make any difference if I am using lower power
> Thinkpad like a T400s as compared to say a W520? Furthermore, if using the
> laptop when the laptop is powered on actually is bad, is it still perfectly
> ok to charge the laptop battery from a low-voltage mains when the laptop is
> off?
>
> As you might guess, I'm far from expert in these matters so if the answers
> to my questions are blindingly obvious then I apologize :)
>
> Thanks,
> Damon
> --
> http://www.damonlynch.net
>



-- 
JaY