Using 90w power adaptor for m15x

Ok, hopefully a quick question. i left the 120W power adapter at work and I have some 90W adapters at home (all from dell). so I was able to plug in the 90W and play a game (MW2) and it seems that it wouldnt charge but the battery stayed at the same level (played for 3+ hours and the battery stayed at 91%).

I tried charging overnight and nothing happened. The next day I used it unplugged for awhile and with 18 min on the battery I plugged it in with the 90W. Again it seemed to freeze it at that 18min level for way beyond 18min.

after doing this I thought "wait I don't want to fry my alienware"

so my question is - does using a 90W eventually hurt my laptop or battery? Is there any way to get it to charge with a 90W (it doesnt seem to).

I've had a few laptops and desktops but never dealt with an adaptor with a different wattage before. Thanks for your help.

 

If I were you, I would NOT use the smaller power supply. If it was the other way round, then it would be fine. In this case, the power supply might not be providing enough power to your computer, which may in the long term result in hardware failure.

 

This.

90W isn't enough for all of the M15x's components, never mind the battery as well. You're talking about a 45-55W processor and a 65W graphics card, that's already using nearly all of the 120W up.

Even if it doesn't damage your hardware, it certainly won't perform as well.

UNLESS, of course, you don't hit that 90W limit. Modern Warfare 2 isn't the most CPU intensive game out there, so wouldn't run the processor at the full 45-55W. Even so I wouldn't risk it.

 

You can run the laptop in stealth mode to reduce the power draw and then the 90W adapter should be fine.