3rd-party power supply problems

Hi all-

Has anyone had issues with the Targus APA69 power supplies? I have used these successfully for 2+ years with several Toshiba, Dell and ASUS laptops and never had a problem until this month. A new ASUS N55 has apparently killed three of these power supplies in the last month. No damage or problems with the computer, but the power supplies have gone from warm to boiling hot to hissing and swollen in a matter of minutes while connected to this machine. Is the machine drawing too much amperage through them- causing them to cook to death, or is this purely a terrible coincidence of bad capacitors?

 

Do you know the wattage your laptop requires? Given the specs I've seen around (2670QM, GT555M) probably at least a 120 watt or 150 watt adapter. Wattage should relatively be the same (18.5-20v), but the required amperage is higher.

For power related accessories (AC adapters, batteries), I only recommend buying OEM equipment. 3rd party stuff I see tend to burn out quicker. Plus alot of notebooks if it doesn't detect eeprom, it won't charge the battery.

 

Sounds like it was trying to draw too much power through the psu, I've had that happen with some power supplies when I was gaming and had an extended battery in.

 

According to the ASUS website:

19 V DC, 6.3 A, 120 W
19 V DC, 4.74 A, 90 W

-since this is an i7 with GT555m, I suspect this laptop draws the higher spec listed here and the lower is for i5 models. The Targus APA69 PSU's rated output is 90 watts. So I guess in the end this is likely the cause of the issue. Thanks all.

 

With all third party power supplies: I would 'over-buy' the wattage by at least 50% if not 100% (yeah, not too much faith in 3rd party components sold at scrap yard prices).

Even if Targus offers a 19V 220W version I wouldn't buy it. (You're lucky your notebook still lives).