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    What happens if you plug into an airplane outlet?

    Discussion in 'Alienware 14 and M14x' started by Nalada, Feb 24, 2012.

  1. Nalada

    Nalada Notebook Evangelist

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    As I understand it - most airplane outlets (conventional 3-pin US style) are only intended to provide 75W per outlet.

    Experience yesterday seemed to perhaps bear that out...
    150W M14X power supply was plugged in and blue tip glowed/illuminated.

    When inserted to M14X (which had low battery levels) the illumination went out and it appeared that the outlet ceased to provide power.

    Did it blow a fuse? Are the fuses per outlet or per cabin?
    How come there are not prominent warnings not to plug power hungry modern laptops into the outlet?

    Is there a way to constrain M14X to use less power?
    (I guess using a 100W dell compatible PSU is one way - on that the M14X will run but not charge the battery. Removing the battery may be another workaround. The last option might be to alternately use the M14X on battery and charge it while it is shutdown)
     
    Nalada, Feb 24, 2012
    #1
  2. Dark_Lord

    Dark_Lord Notebook Enthusiast

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    you can disable battery charging from BIOS... i dont know if that helps... it is not like you can go in different air planes and try...
     
    Dark_Lord, Feb 24, 2012
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  3. stonehz

    stonehz Notebook Enthusiast

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    I had the same problem on a flight...

    Apparently, the power outlets in the air-planes can save you battery BUT
    you can't play games :) they don't provide enough power for our "hunrgy" M14x :)

    I was trying to play Duke Nukem without luck... the supply stopped and the laptop switched back to battery :)

    Enjoy your flight
     
    stonehz, Feb 24, 2012
    #3
  4. Neil McRae

    Neil McRae Notebook Evangelist

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    yup, m11x does work on plane power though. Its limited to 100W. If you go above this it will trip out but come back to life shortly after.
     
    Neil McRae, Feb 24, 2012
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  5. Voodooi

    Voodooi AFK for a while...

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    So if I go on a plane, I can only surf/play old games that don't require a dedicated GPU? Kinda sucks because I have a 20hr+ plane trip later this year to Asia.

    Nice to see the M11X works on games without issues, though.
     
    Voodooi, Feb 24, 2012
    #5