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    Upgrading power brick

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by saniainen, Feb 1, 2017.

  1. saniainen

    saniainen Notebook Enthusiast

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    So I have tinkered with my laptop quite a bit and now it started consuming more power than my 135W brick can provide. Now battery discharges in a heavy use and sometimes in long sessions battery calibration gets messed up.

    The question is, can I replace power brick to a more powerful? Or is it dangerous? What should I consider when buying it.
     
    saniainen, Feb 1, 2017
    #1
  2. don_svetlio

    don_svetlio In the Pipe, Five by Five.

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    If Acer offer one that is compatible, sure. But buying cheap chinese firecrackers off of eBay is not a great idea.
     
    don_svetlio, Feb 1, 2017
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    Dackzy likes this.
  3. Dackzy

    Dackzy Notebook Guru

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    Buy first party, do not go on ebay and just buy some random one from China. I have seen those cheap PSUs wreck a laptop or suddenly catch fire (or both)
     
    Dackzy, Feb 1, 2017
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  4. saniainen

    saniainen Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm not looking for ebay crap, it would be plain stupid to cheap out on really important part when I already spent like 1500€ on my laptop. So far I haven't found any from acer with the same plug, Maybe I could just buy from other models and use adapter to make it fit.
     
    saniainen, Feb 1, 2017
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  5. don_svetlio

    don_svetlio In the Pipe, Five by Five.

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    Acer don't offer PSU adapters as far as I am aware.
     
    don_svetlio, Feb 1, 2017
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  6. OverTallman

    OverTallman Notebook Evangelist

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    As long as it bears a reputable brand (e.g. Delta Electronics, Chicony, Asian Power Devices etc), I think it should be safe to go.

    That said, I've used a number of cheap power bricks and have yet to experience bad things from them, though most of the time my devices don't even push to the bricks' power limit.
     
    OverTallman, Feb 1, 2017
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  7. kosti

    kosti Notebook Virtuoso

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    Your original question was if you can use a more powerful adapter safely. The answer is yes, provided the adapter outputs the same DC voltage and the output jack has the same dimensions and polarity scheme as the stock one.

    But, what upgrades have you done that makes you feel like you need a more powerful adapter? As far as I am aware, your laptop uses BGA CPUs and GPUs and those are the two most power hungry components.

    I recommend getting a power meter so you can see how many watts your laptop is actually drawing. I doubt any upgrades on that model will push the power limits past what your power adapter can provide.
     
    kosti, Feb 1, 2017
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  8. saniainen

    saniainen Notebook Enthusiast

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    Lets investigate! according to notebook check, it uses 121W max http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-A...n-VN7-792G-74Q4-Notebook-Review.154364.0.html On top of their configuration, I have 2 SSD's, mouse, headphones, 2x16gb ram, instead of one 8gb and my CPU runs at 3.1Ghz, instead of 2.6Ghz. Better turbo boost adds 10W (based on HWinfo), Extra SSD's and RAM, ~2W, peripherals ~1W. So we get to about 134W. And now the question, was my load differing from their load? What about GPU? Did it run the same?
     
    saniainen, Feb 1, 2017
    #8