PA-10 Adapter and an old Vostro 1500

Hi and thanks for viewing my query!

I have a little bit of a problem and need a little help figuring out how to sort it.

I have a pretty maxed out 4-year old Vostro 1500 that probably saps a bit of power. If the stats are helpful, they are...

X7900 Core 2 Extreme 2.8Ghz (sometimes overclocked)
4Gb PC2-5300 Memory
750Gb 5,400rpm HDD
Nvidia 8600m GT (sometimes overclocked)

Uh...that's probably all you need to know about the laptop. It's never got anything plugged into the USB ports and it's battery's pretty much got no funtion. (It doesn't appear to make any difference whether plugged in or not.)

Anyway, my problem is this; I now live in Japan with my laptop which I bought from the UK, and the UK adapter's on it's last legs (which isn't surprising considering how long this range of Dell adapters seem to last for). Being in Japan, I'd prefer to get a Japanese adapter, which are easy to find (as I guess PA-10 adapters are compatible with a wide variety of dell laptops).

After being duped buying some Chinese rip-off replica, I bought an adapter and was happy to see that the under 65 Watt capacity warning didn't appear (which it shouldn't, being 90 Watts). However, when I try to do something strenuous with the laptop (and no overclock), the adapter emits a slight buzzing sound. The laptop seems to struggle on occasions too.

The adapter is exactly the same as my previous UK one, only Japanese, and is REV A04 instead of A02. They are both PA-10 and the UK one works fine when the laptop's under stress.

To add to the diagnosis complication, my DC Jack is loose and I plan on resoldering a new one, however seen as the UK one works I'd guess it wouldn't be that causing the problem...would it?

It appears that this adapter has a lower watt capacity to my old one, which should be absolute garbage...

If anyone has any queries or advice, I'd really appreciate it. For obvious reasons, the laptop is not under warranty and I'd rather try to take things under my own wing if I can. I am aware I may need to get a new laptop soon...

Many thanks for viewing my thread!

 

I don't quite understand the question here... are you asking if it's normal for an adapter to hum a bit under load?

 

Ah, sorry about that.

Um, no...it's more like a buzz and it's not something I've really heard before. It's not like super loud, but it seems to be linked to the laptop's strain and seems to cap it. On occasions, my laptop actually turned off under very high load but I set the VID higher and it stopped doing it.

I tested it while playing a game and although I can play it fine with my UK adapter, it seems to struggle, moves slower and renders slower with the JP one. Oddly, the game mouse struggles to move so quickly and seems to think I am left-clicking when I brush the touchpad in a direction.

When it makes a noise, my cat starts playing with it. I guess it's quite noticeable...