When a charger is a charger?

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daves87rs

daves87rs

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Kinda annoyed today...my old sony vaio laptop which runs quite well- the charging cord died on it today. Granted because t is an 8 year old laptop, parts out there are all over... been on amazon, and a few other places....

The part number is vgp-ac19v27- and my question is if I should buy the brand name itself, or something comparable to it? Just on amazon alone, I've seen cords for 4 bucks, others for 30 or more. I kinda figure a cord is a cord, as long as it plugs in...

Granted, I don't mind spending a few bucks if I have to, but who knows how long my old vaio will go.....


Thoughts?
 
I bought a charger for my 10 year old Dell Vostro laptop from eBay few months ago for less than $10 shipped. It is working okay as of now.
 
Are you sure it's the cord?

Usually the power distribution board fails internally in the laptop.

Buy the cheap one as a test. But to answer your question, a cord is a cord in this scenario. The power distribution board controls the amperage coming from the the power brick on the cord.
 
I don't have any experience with knock off computer bricks, but I've had mixed results with other chargers. Personally, I've had good luck, but my wife has had a car 5VDC charger slowly fall apart (bad threads where the fuse is accessed,) and my dad has had a 5VDC charger literally rip apart when he went to remove it from the socket, leaving live wires exposed.

With that said, I'd make the choice based on a few things:

1. Seller/item rating: Are other having good luck with the $4 chargers, even though they're knock offs?

2. Rarity: Are others having good luck with the $4 chargers, because they're OEM parts people don't want and are try to get rid of?

3. Longevity: 8 years is pretty old for a laptop, so if you don't plan on or expect it to last years longer, then why pay more than you need to for a charger. Just make sure to use Paypal or some other form of payment that offers some sort of protection, if you receive a piece of junk, right out of the box.
 
My HP DV7 charger died after a few years; it had a bad connection internally. I had a spare charger laying around from an older Dell laptop. Same output voltage, but not able to deliver as much peak power. The first few times I used it, the computer would tell me that it was plugged into a non verified power source, but it still charged fine. A little slower, but still fine. It's like plugging your phone into a 500ma USB port when the battery actually supports rapid charging at/over 2 amps. It'll still charge, albeit slower. There's a science behind charge and discharge rates for batteries, and resulting longevity, but my battery still holds a charge fine after 5 years.
 
Originally Posted By: DemoFly
Are you sure it's the cord?

Usually the power distribution board fails internally in the laptop.

Buy the cheap one as a test. But to answer your question, a cord is a cord in this scenario. The power distribution board controls the amperage coming from the the power brick on the cord.



Was thinking so at first....then noticed the light was not on on the brick any more. Strange part was that it was charging 10 min before I moved it for my son! Strange for sure....
 
Originally Posted By: daves87rs
Originally Posted By: DemoFly
Are you sure it's the cord?

Usually the power distribution board fails internally in the laptop.

Buy the cheap one as a test. But to answer your question, a cord is a cord in this scenario. The power distribution board controls the amperage coming from the the power brick on the cord.



Was thinking so at first....then noticed the light was not on on the brick any more. Strange part was that it was charging 10 min before I moved it for my son! Strange for sure....

Very cool that it has a built in light. You could always use a DVOM, I guess.
 
Bought a used Lenovo T500 that came with a knockoff power adapter.
Had an issue where the charger was smelling and it would stop charging.
Cracked the case and even though it showed 90W adapter printed on it, along with UL approval, it was actually a 60W board internally, and it was missing all the RFI filter components to actually make it UL approvable.
Another time I left town with my old laptop (a metal Dell XPS i forget what model) and bought a adapter from Walmart to let me use my computer. It actually made the metal parts of the laptop 'live' and I could get a tingle off it. I returned it and got a second one and it did the same.
I returned that one for cash back.

I would use genuine charger, but good luck finding one on eBay. Anybody can print anything they want on those things.
 
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I'd just get the cheap one and see... if it only lasts a short time, you aren't out much anyway. I've seen some of those cheap cords last a long time too.
 
I would never buy one of those cheap $5 chargers for anything I cared about, and never for any period of time. They lack all protections, they lack all RF filtering, they are legitimately dangerous, and there is a good chance they will fail catastophically, and take your device out with it, and possibly even catch on fire.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick R
I would never buy one of those cheap $5 chargers for anything I cared about, and never for any period of time. They lack all protections, they lack all RF filtering, they are legitimately dangerous, and there is a good chance they will fail catastophically, and take your device out with it, and possibly even catch on fire.



Problem is, I've heard some issues with even Sony's own branded chargers...as they do not even make my model one any more...

Trying this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Laptop-Adapter-vgn...ger+vgp-ac19v27


Friend of mine recommended it...ran it on his old vaio as well.

Don't worry...I plan to keep an eye on it to make sure it does not overheat or do anything strange. That said, it is a beat up (but great ruuning) 8 year old laptop that could could have something fail....never know!


Will go with a better one is I do not like this one....
 
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