Question Laptop Charging Circuit

[Cameron231099]

Just bought a used Inspiron 14 5425 that comes with a standard 65w charger, a massive downgrade from my RTX3070 MSI GF66 Katana which take a 245w charger.

This got me wondering about how much power the Inspiron would actually accept and if I should keep the higher wattage charger, but I can't actually find any solid info on what the maximum wattage may be.

Is there anywhere I am supposed to be able to find this info? I've tried searching for the charging circuit diagrams, but can't find anything useful, so figured I would ask someone more knowledgeable.

Cheers.

 

[Eximo]

You might have to ask Dell. I don't see any published numbers on C ratings for the battery, available additional adapters.

65W 19.5V charger is basically 1C rate for the 15.2V 54Wh battery that comes with it. Being a smaller battery, 65W may very well be the maximum. You can get something like a 125W Dell charger, it won't hurt the laptop.

I doubt your MSI charger would fit.

 

[Cameron231099]

You might have to ask Dell. I don't see any published numbers on C ratings for the battery, available additional adapters.

65W 19.5V charger is basically 1C rate for the 15.2V 54Wh battery that comes with it. Being a smaller battery, 65W may very well be the maximum. You can get something like a 125W Dell charger, it won't hurt the laptop.

I doubt your MSI charger would fit.

Cheers. I've got an adapter from a 7.4mm to a standard 4.5mm as that's what the Katana takes for some reason, so it would also fit the Inspiron.

The laptop is mostly for work trips and my work laptop also uses a 65w charger that I need to carry, so i guess i'll just take it as a boon that I may only have to carry one charger around now anyways.

 

[Eximo]

You could time the recharge time and see if the larger one helps at all.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

The load, in this case laptop, only draws what it needs at the moment. Using a larger capacity power source does NOT do anything for you except generate more heat and weigh down your bag. Obvously your new lappy is more energy efficient as evidenced by the smaller power supply.

 

[Eximo]

I don't know about generating more heat. Depends a lot on the base efficiency of the power supply. High power gamer style power bricks are more likely to be higher end to keep them small.

The only question is whether the laptop can charge at a rate faster then 65W. If so, the large brick has some purpose towards the Dell. But if he is carrying both laptops, he is saving the weight of carrying two.