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    external battery or car adapter?

    Discussion in 'Accessories' started by angelic_shanz, Jun 15, 2004.

  1. angelic_shanz

    angelic_shanz Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have a sony grt360 and want to get either an external battery or a ac adapter to use while im traveling in a car. What would work better and have longer battery life. I would like to be able to use it for a long drive.
     
  2. Big Calhoun

    Big Calhoun Notebook Evangelist

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    It depends what you plan on doing. If you'll be using an application such as GPS, I'd recommend the car adapter. If you just need to access information periodically as you're driving (Buckle Up and watch the road!!), I'd go with an external battery. You could always set your power button to take your comp into standby and use that to conserve power between the times you need the machine.
     
  3. Brian

    Brian Working at 486 Speed NBR Reviewer

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    Well, I'd take a different tact...the car charger is going to be cheaper and you don't have to carry it around with you, meaning less weight. Why wouldn't you want to go that route? Is having the extra battery good for other uses?

    Editor in Chief http://www.bargainPDA.com and http://www.SPOTstop.com
     
  4. Quikster

    Quikster Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    Even cheaper would be a power converter, so you could use your standard power adapter, and then the power converter could be used for other things when you don't need it for your laptop, or if you have an extra outlet, like for a tv or something.

    zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856
     
  5. angelic_shanz

    angelic_shanz Notebook Enthusiast

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    It wouldnt be me driving so I would be playing games and watching dvds and tv shows I recorded. Would the iGo Juice work for me?
     
  6. Big Calhoun

    Big Calhoun Notebook Evangelist

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    I'd go with Quiksters suggestion and get a power converter in light of your new information. It's just like having an AC outlet but in your car; just about anything you would plug in a home outlet you can plug in the converter.

    The Igo Juice may work for you, you'd have to check their website to see of your model is listed. In general, any laptop that uses 70 watts or less of power and which Igo makes a tip for should work. The Igo is really good if you own multiple machines and/or devices (laptops, PDAs, cell phones). Otherwise, the power converter would giv eyou the best value for your situation.
     
  7. angelic_shanz

    angelic_shanz Notebook Enthusiast

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    Are there any good power converters you suggest? Plus how do I find out how much watts my laptop uses I dont want to burn out the converter.
     
  8. mathlete2001

    mathlete2001 Notebook Deity

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    <blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by angelic_shanz

     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 8, 2015
  9. Quikster

    Quikster Notebook Deity NBR Reviewer

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    i just picked one up at walmart for 30.00. Most of the converters now list which model they recommend for laptops.

    zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856
     
  10. Big Calhoun

    Big Calhoun Notebook Evangelist

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    I also picked up one for around $35.00 from K-Mart last year. The wattage was within range and it includes a fan to keep cool and alarm to warn of over/under power. When I do use it, I like to leave it under the seat...no muss, no fuss.
     
  11. angelic_shanz

    angelic_shanz Notebook Enthusiast

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    ok thanks [ :)] I will go buy one of those instead of wasting my money on another battery
     
  12. franco_romano

    franco_romano Newbie

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    I am running an IBM Thinkpad and recently purchased one of the newest batterygeek external laptop battery models BG 15-21-118. I filled out thier free battery audit form on thier website and they recommended to me this external laptop battery model which has a 16V/19V selectable switch. It also supports all laptops that have an A/C adapter with a voltage output rating between 15V-21V and a current output rating up to 4.5A. This battery also has an even longer charge life because of its higher charge capacity of 118WH. I paid $179 + shipping for it and I must admit that I do not have any regrets because before I only got about 1/2 hour on my Thinkpads internal battery and now I am getting well over 5 hours just on this external battery alone. Also, to replace my internal battery would have costed about the same amount of money if not more. I would recommend batterygeek to anyone. When I called them, they also gave me some other helpful tips over the phone which helped me to increase my battery life even more. One of these tips they suggested to me was to upgrade my RAM from 128MB to 512MB which has also proved to increase my battery life. The reason for this is that with higher RAM your laptop does not have to access your hard drive as much. I'm considering buying another one of thier batteries as a gift for someone.