If you are interested in knowing about whether using a lower or higher wattage charger is harmful for a laptop or is it a good idea ? Then, you are going to read the content shares valuable information on this topic and can know is it good or bad ?
Lower or Higher Wattage Charger For My Laptop Battery ?
You may have lost original charger and just found an old one and want to know using the old charger in the new laptop is good idea or not? Though, there is possibility of its compatibility but still it’s a risky idea.
How To Define Wattage On a Charger ?
The wattage is a measurement which indicates how much amount of power a charger draws at given time period. Watts measure the electric power and it can be calculated by multiplying the amperage with voltage of circuit, it will be equal to Watts.
Difference Between AC and DC Power ?
AC stands for Alternating Current and it is a type of electric current, AC power keeps changes its flow of electrons after certain days of period. The normal household in a society consumes AC power.
DC stands for Direct Current and its flow does not change the direction after some time period. This type of power delivers voltage more consistently and mostly laptop batteries deliver direct current to a laptop.
Explain About Other Specifications On A Laptop Battery Charge and Its Meaning ?
There are various power related terms used and printed on laptop charger. Some of these terms used for indicating input requirements and accordingly user comes to know whether laptop charger requires AC or DC power ?
Mostly laptop charger is using AC 100V-240V because it matches standard power outlet in most of the houses.
A laptop charger must be containing all this concerned information such as amount of voltage, amperage and wattage is going to deliver to the laptop.
Can Be Using A Different Charger Damaging For A Laptop ?
First of all, user needs to check the size and design of the charger plug because a charger of different laptop brand might not be working for your laptop. Charger polarity also needs to be checked through reading the label on the charger which shows two circles, plus sign and minus sign. This diagram is indicating the polarity of the outer and inner plug.
If you want to know that this old laptop charger is compatible with your new laptop, match the polarity of your old broken charger with this one. If both are matching, then this charger is compatible with your laptop.
Your laptop and charger must be matching the voltage output requirements. User can read voltage requirement information on the back side of the laptop. If you have a charger with significant difference in voltage output comparing to the laptop, then you should never plug in to avoid any damage. User can make try if this difference is not significant.
If you want to try new charger and has lost the old one, then try to find its voltage output related information online on the internet and then compare the result of both. Any significant difference in the voltage output requirement between charger and laptop is going to damage the laptop.
One more useful information needs to mention here, you can easily use a charger which delivers more watts than your laptop requires, because then laptop is not going to draw additional watts which it does not require.
In the contrary, a laptop charger with lower wattage comparing to the requirement of laptop is very harmful and one should not try this.
Can I Be Using Higher Wattage Battery Charger In My Laptop ?
User can definitely use the charger with higher wattage provided other requirements have been consistent with the laptop requirements such as voltage and polarity. An effective feature in laptop as it does not consume additional power from its original requirement, so higher wattage is not going to damage the laptop.
As far as voltage and polarity is concerned, both must be matching or as close as possible. All this related information needs to be read very carefully to avoid the loss.
Can I Use a Lower Amp Battery Charger In My Laptop ?
You can use a charger with lower amp but not going to enjoy better user experience then. It would limit your usage of laptop and also create trouble while working. For Instance, if you are using a charger delivers 45 watts and laptop requires 90 watts which means laptop is receiving half of its original power requirements.
You can only use laptop on low screen brightness to keep it turned on as long as possible. To stream the video on such laptop which using watts half of its requirements will consume all its battery in no time. You will have to keep it charging all the time to avoid shut down.
Charger with lower amp is going to increase the difficulties. Lower amp would not deliver enough power to keep the laptop running when it is already receiving lower wattages.
A charger with low amp could cause tripping a fuse which interrupts the power supply and in result damages the all internal components of laptop. You can afford losing a charger which is not that expensive, but damaging the ram, processor, hard disk and other components will be unbearable loss.
If you have multiple chargers available at home, try to use the one with higher wattages and amps comparing to the laptop requirement, it is not going to damage the laptop.
Can We Charge Our Laptop Battery With Lower Voltage Or Is It Harmful ?
A laptop comes with motherboard which can regulate the voltage. This motherboard ability is used for adjusting the voltage of current as per the requirement of different internal components. Every hardware has not the same voltage requirement and motherboard regulates accordingly.
This voltage regulator keeps its flow maintained and makes its most efficient usage for the system. In one circumstance, this voltage regulator can go fail when charger delivers amount of voltages which is significantly higher or lower comparing to system requirements.
We would advice you not to be using a charger which delivers voltages with significant difference because it will damage your hundred of dollars laptop.
Is Using a Charger With Higher Voltage Harmful For a Laptop ?
The answer is Yes, there is higher probability that charger with higher voltage is going to damage the laptop and its hardware. Voltage regulator may regulate lower or additional voltage with less difference from the actual requirements; otherwise its regulator will also go fail in preventing the damage.
It is better to conduct all essential research and find out the how much voltage your charger delivers and how much laptop requires. Any minor difference is no issue but significant difference is the perfect receipt of loss.
What are the Signs of Slow Charging of Laptop ?
There are obviously certain signs which indicates you that laptop is charging very slowly and you will know that it is not getting enough power even charger is plugged in for long time. These are the most common signs which show that slow charging of laptop, discussed in the following.
- User is unable to turn-on the laptop even it was being charged for long time. Laptop is not turning on because does not contain much power in its battery.
- It takes abnormally longer time to fully charge the laptop.
- The graphic card is such a hardware which consumes highest wattages and power. If there are issues in power delivery and it supplies low wattages, user will have low-quality graphics while playing a game or running an app. There are also chances of having graphic card error.
- User will suffer from display problems as user is unable to have high-graphics settings or having lines on the screen. All these issues are because of low wattage supply to graphic card.
- User can experience sudden shut off the system and it needs to restart the laptop.
If you experience one of these signs which indicates low power supply issues, it’s better to turn off the laptop because otherwise hardware can get damaged and have to bear hundreds of dollars loss.
What is the Risk of Using Wrong Charger ?
The risk is higher and to the extent can damage your laptop. A wrong charger means highly incompatible with the laptop requirements and supplying low wattages which damages the all internal components, especially the graphic card.
The issue begins with failure in power supply, incompatibility of charger with laptop system requirements is going to create power failure which damages the all internal components.
Any Technique Using Different Charger Safely ?
There is no technique which allows the user using a charger with the wrong polarity and rate of voltage difference is also higher. No technique will help you in avoiding the power failure which is the perfect receipt of damaging the hardware such as processor, ram, graphic card and motherboard.
Charger delivering higher amp and watts to a laptop is not an issue, laptop or computer does not accept additional watts and amp from their system requirement. Therefore, higher watts and amp is not going to damage but lower watts and amp can badly damage the system.
You are advised never to be using a charger with lower watts and amps, this involves too much risk and hundreds of dollars worth laptop is at risk.
How To Make the Most Efficient Usage of Your Battery Charge ?
You can definitely make the best usage of your remaining battery charge instead of using wrong charger. For Instance, remaining battery is 50% and you have to finish an important task for big client and cannot afford losing him. It is better try to make your battery last longer instead of using a wrong charger. There are certain techniques which can enhance the battery timings before it dies.
These techniques are discussed in the following.
- Keep your screen brightness lower and this simple technique will add couple of hours to your battery life.
- If you are not actively using internet or not using at all, turn-off the Wi-Fi network which otherwise consumes too much battery.
- Bluetooth feature also drains the battery a lot; user should Unpair any Bluetooth accessories.
- Avoid unnecessary multi-tasking and close down all unproductive programs, because multiple running programs in background consumes lots of battery power.
- Stop streaming YouTube videos for fun because streaming also sucks the battery at higher rate. You can wait for streaming videos until finds a right charger for charging battery.
- There are often multiple apps running in background even these programs are already closed down. Remove all these apps because these are collectively consuming too much battery power.
- Disable all un-necessary services such as desktop mailbox app which keeps connected to the internet on hourly basis to check if any new message is received.
- Disable all such apps which offer location-based services. These apps are using phone built-in GPS feature which puts lots of pressure on battery.
- Unplug all the unnecessary accessories like headphone or external hard disk; these accessories also consume battery power.
- Turn-on the power saving mode which automatically handles multiple features at its best.
It is better using a portable power bank instead of plugging in wrong charger which is incompatible. Power bank would not be harmful for laptop in any way. Power bank enjoys good reputation as a useful accessory which benefits its users under emergency situation. These days Power banks are coming with big charging capacity which can keep your laptop battery fully charged once again.
Final Words
There is no doubt that using the charger of different laptop involves risk but it is important to know that a laptop charger with higher voltages are less risky comparing to lower voltages. Laptop does not accept additional voltages from charger but lower voltages interrupts and damage the internal components like processor, ram or internal storage.
