Travelling Advice? (Moving to England)

I've decided to change things up and move from Vancouver, Canada to just outside London, England. Being a brand new owner of a M17x r3 (my first ever laptop), I've never travelled with a one before, especially to countries with different power outlets.

What I'm trying to avoid is plugging my new baby into some converter, and turning it into a smoking pile of glowing melted plastic.

Do I need to get any type of specific voltage converters or anything, or will just a simple cheap outlet adapter be enough? (I've seen like 20 different types, ranging from $5 to $100+, some just adapters, some deluxe voltage converters and whatnot).

Would it be safer to go through Dell, see if I can purchase an official UK cord or power brick or something?

So instead of trusting some random store salesman's opinion, I've resorted to the awesome resource which is: you people, the residents of the Alienware corner of NR.

Also, is it a bad idea to add a surge protector (north american style) into the previously mentioned equation of Alienware+Adapter?


*Feel free to add questions or answers of your own if there are other fellow inter-dimensional Alienware travellers out there*

 

All you need is an outlet adaptor. The M17x PSU is capable of accepting 120v or 240v. No need for a converter as an adaptor will be enough.

 

All you need is a cord like this:


Or an US to UK adapter for the one you already have. You don't need a power converter, the PSU will take between 110V and 240V to power your aptop.

 

Just buy US to UK adapter from ebay (£1.99)

 

Awesome. Really happy this wont be a big deal or more money.
Thanks a bunch for the speedy responses.

Now for the fun part of hauling this thing all over Europe for the next few years in a backpack haha.
*related note: The Alienware headset needs it's own freakin backpack for the size of it.

 

Just get the cable like Katalin said. Cost something like 5 bucks or so at a elektronic shop.

The best option of the 2.

 

Like everyone else said above. Just get a power adapter. I've travelled with my M17x. It's not bad actually, somewhat heavy on the shoulders, but I thought it was nice to carry around.

 

Something else to consider though is this:

In Europe and most of the rest of the world outside of the USA/Canada there are additional WIFI channels available that arent allowed in North America. Your WIFI card should work with the standard 1-11, but if you end up somewhere running on channels 12 or 13 you'll have issues and likely wont be able to see them to connect.

There are some ways to rectify this:

Either A: Find firmware for your wifi card and flash it to support the additional channels, this can be a pain, but I've seen them available before, do some searching (not sure specifically about the Alienware wifi cards though)

Or B: Buy a new wifi card and swap it in after you get there. They cant be sold in the US/CA so you'll have to buy it there unless you find a seller on Ebay or something.

Possibly C: Some Wifi drivers can allow the additional channels if your card supports it, but you'll need to get the international drivers.

 

Not the adapter just the cable.

Got mine from the US like many others and everything works fine.

 

Interesting, thanks for the heads up on that, hadn't heard anything about that before.
I'll take a look around and see what info I can find on that.
If it makes any difference, I have the Killer Wireless-N 1103 option in my r3.

 

Here's a link on adding or changing the registry to enable additional channels.

It may or may not work for your NIC, mine doesnt have the specific registry entry that is referred to so I dont know if mine would support the setting. As with all things in the registry, use at your own risk.

Lenovo IdeaPad S Series Forum • View topic - How to enable wireless channels 12,13, and 14.