Power Cord Question

Hello There!

I have a question about the power cord. Is it ok to unplug/plug in the power cord into the computer while it is running. I always shut off the computer before I either put the cable in or take it out.


Thanks!

 

Yes, it is ok to plug/unplug the cord while the computer is on. The only issue you would have is if your laptops battery had died and you unplugged it. You would lose any unsaved work at that time.

 

While it is 'okay' this is what I have been doing (and still recommended by some manufacturers) since the 70's:


Plug in the plug to the wall. Plug in the device. Now, turn on.


By plugging the adaptor into the wall, any surges/spikes (by simply plugging in) are absorbed by the adaptor which is designed to withstand this very thing.

Plugging next into the device with the power off properly grounds it and puts the least amount of stress on the circuits (and any resulting spikes/surges or even local brown out conditions - even if they only last milliseconds).

Now, turning the device on gives all the components the optimum conditions for which they were designed to work.

I have had a single power adaptor 'die' with the above method in almost half a century (and it probably would have died sooner if I had not been following the above 'best practice').

 

I do the same thing that tiller does with the charger (wall first, then laptop) since I'm a bit paranoid about the cleanness of an outlet's power supply. Though I'll plug in my laptop whether it's on, off, or while it's asleep. I haven't had any problems from doing that, but if I do I have an accidental warranty to fall back on, so I'm not all that worried about a total loss.

 

Weird I've always been doing it back wards for all my electronics, plug in power cord to the electronic device then plug into wall and the trend has carried over to the way I was first plugging in my laptop's power cord (was a newbie with my first laptop).

But now I just keep the laptop's power cord always plugged into the wall and plug it into the laptop when needed, heck I don't even bother removing the power plug from the laptop when inserting and removing my battery which I seldomly do since I use my laptop exclusively on my bed plugged in.

 

It's perfectly safe to plug/unplug while a laptop is on. I usually try to plug in wall power first, then the computer, but I don't see a need to have the device off when plugging it in.

 

That's what I do but I will add that I plug my laptop when at home to my desktop power surge power and on the road have a portable power surge protector that I plug the laptop adapter to before plugging into the wall then to the laptop. As always use a power surge protector for your computer/laptop being safe is better then being sorry. That how I use it to protect important equipment since replacing multiple computer/laptop isn't something one wants to do constantly.

 

As others stated, it's safe to plug/unplug the cable. The only way you'll do damage to the jack or the cable is if it's ripped out of the laptop with force and not straight out, and/or if the cable is bent at an acute angle.