Made permanent damage with dc-dc adapter for laptop?! help!

diskey · 04-26-2006, 11:08 AM

Bought myself one of those adapters on ebay which can transform dc 12v to dc 19v-20v etc- up to 22v.

Well adjusted the adapter to 19v which my laptop ac-dc has as output and seemed to work nice. When I took the laptop inside 5 min later after just testing the adapter, I found out that my laptop won't recognize the ac-dc adapter or the dc-dc car adapter anymore if it's plugged in after the laptop is turned on!! So with other words; the laptop will only charge if the laptop is turned off ! and it will drain the battery when charger is plugged in!!

What gives??! What should I do. I feel this crappy little ebay item has destroyed my 2K laptop now! Anything to do with this?!

The dc-dc chargerd said too high voltage could give damage OVER EXTENDED TIME, but I only used it for like 5 mins before this happened!

The laptop is a Compal CL50 with a centrino shipset

Never read any similar thread about this, perhaps the lappy got 20-21V for like 2-3 seconds, but thats it !

Skuzzle · 04-26-2006, 11:32 AM

dont forget your car is 14v at tick over.

i.e. unless its regulated then you woulda been getting more voltage than stated out of the far side... oooops

b8bboi · 04-26-2006, 11:38 AM

That doesn't sound too good. Is the laptop under warranty? I'd play dumb and claim warranty. Also, it's too late but get a multimeter and measure the voltage out of the adapter when hooked up to the car and see if it indeed was the culprit.

diskey · 04-26-2006, 12:25 PM

No it's not under warranty anymore, but I've thought off playing stupid ann tell my insurance company that it must have been damaged while charging inside the house.

It makes a continious bee sound on some voltages...
Gonna test this litte bastard whit a multimeter tonight.
It's regulated any I think all this adapters on ebay are for the most the same.

Car DC Power Regulated Adaptor for Notebook Laptop E001:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll..._BIN_Stores_IT

diskey · 04-26-2006, 12:40 PM

and forgot to mention. My Xenarc is flickering whenever this adapter is plugged into my laptop while the laptop screen is normal.

Zebelkhan · 04-26-2006, 12:49 PM

What did you expect from this seller? His user name is LEMONCELL......

WarDriver · 04-26-2006, 01:16 PM

Bummer...Sorry to hear about your hardware problems. You may have damaged the laptop's DC board. Depending on your model you may be able to swap in a new power board.

If all else fails you could always give it to me...

-WarDriver-

diskey · 04-26-2006, 01:39 PM

yeah took over a month before I had the charger - came in the mail with some red gift thread wrapped around it and hong kong stamps...

anyone know if the hardware powermanagement is built into the motherboard or if it's some external changable platinacard or something?

WarDriver · 04-27-2006, 07:49 AM

What laptop are you running?

diskey · 04-27-2006, 11:03 AM

it's a Branded Compal CL50 laptop - compal.com

UPDATE:

tested with multimeter today: my usual ac-dc laptop charger gives
19,8V stated to output 19V.

The ebay adapter gives at 19v : 19,2 18v: 18,1 20v: 20,2

tried to put the adapter on 20v - since that is like 0,4v more - now the battery dosen't work anymore so my laptop only runs on power from
the usual charger with the battery taken out of the laptop!! woho

Can't understand that all this could happend when the ebay adapter seems to be quite accurate.....

But let this be a warning too everybody trying to power a laptop in their cars!

I called my laptop support division. Got reply whith most possibly motherboard damaged and whole motherboard must be changed = EXSPENSIVE - costs over 500$ !!

damn I don't know what to do now....this was a real downtrip

WarDriver · 04-27-2006, 12:42 PM

No parts on eBay either. Thats no good. Looks like it might be the same as the Acer 290, 291 but I'm not sure.

How many amps was the travel adapter putting out compared to the home adapter?

Hope you get it figured out.

Freelander · 04-27-2006, 01:10 PM

diskey, that sucks man.

for all those people who have not done so, buy a $10 multimeter. it seems crazy to connect expensive equipment like computers and lcd screens when you don't know the actual voltage of the power source.

diskey · 04-27-2006, 02:04 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by Freelander

diskey, that sucks man.

for all those people who have not done so, buy a $10 multimeter. it seems crazy to connect expensive equipment like computers and lcd screens when you don't know the actual voltage of the power source.

I would have tried the travel charger anyway if I'd checked with a multimeter
before since it's very accurate. So why all this have happened is a bit confusing to me, can't understand that 0,4V over would make a damage like this!.

Yes the compal cl50 have many undernames. mine is Whitebox, other are acer and zepto....

I hope I will get this covered by my insurance since it covers overvoltage damage like this...

Found the the motherboard in an online store for 450$ and that was on sale!
But I'm not competent to change it so no reason to dig into it..

I think my home charger should give 3,5A I will compare and check later..

WarDriver · 04-28-2006, 08:55 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by diskey

I think my home charger should give 3,5A I will compare and check later..

What did you come up with?

diskey · 04-28-2006, 09:03 AM

Home carger should give 3,16A
Travel Charger gives max 3,5 A