[Gllug] Multi-voltage power adaptors

[Andrew Back]

On (10:58 07/02/11), dominicwalden at tesco.net wrote:
> Hi, 
> 
> I recently purchased a Toshiba Satellite 4080XCDT (for £15 bought as shown) without a power adaptor. It didn't power up when someone tested it for me, but I'd need to get my own adaptor in order to diagnose what the problem is.
> 
> So, I have two options. One is to buy a single voltage power adaptor suited for this laptop (for about £20), or buy a multi-voltage adaptor (I was thinking Maplins unless there are better places, for about £25-30). My question is whether there would be advantage to getting a multi-voltage. It would mean that if the Sat didn't work I could always use it for other laptops (thus I don't waste £20). But, would the single voltage be better 'performance-wise' (I dunno if that would be the right way to put it, I know very little about laptops im afraid), would there be a risk with the multi-voltage of being of it lower quality or behaving weirdly (power surges, not sticking to its designated voltage, etc.)?

I suspect it will ultimately come down to quality. The main consideration
should be that it's regulated. Some power supplies are not and the output
can vary wildly subject to load. Technically there is no reason why a
variable output PSU will be less reliable than one that is fixed. Well, I
suppose the former may have more parts and thus there may theoretically be
more to go wrong.

However, I have noticed that some of those Maplin variable output PSUs are
linear instead of switched mode. Which is to say that they are larger, lower
output current, less efficient and probably bad value for money. That is
unless you have a particular need for a linear power supply, i.e. some usage
where you need minimal noise.

Cheers,

Andrew

-- 
Andrew Back
mailto:andrew at osmosoft.com
http://carrierdetect.com
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