SZ4 - Using/Charging laptop in Car

Hi

I really want to charge or sometimes use my laptop in my car while travelling so it'll be ready when I arrive, so I brought a car/auto power inverter which goes up to 150W nominal/300W peak.

It works fine when I plug my laptop in without the battery and it would run fine, but when the battery is in the laptop it won't start or charge the battery. The charger's LED just lights up faintly.

My guess is that the 150W isn't enough? But then how much power does it need?! Wherever I read replacement or travel adapters from Targus/Kensington etc, they always quote like 90W or 120W for "power hungry laptops" and my little SZ4 is hardly a Alienware monster when it comes to power.

Any help?

Thanks.

Joe

 

Hi.

Still no reply?

I'm still trying to figure this out and still searching around the forum to see if there's anything relevant. I don't know much about Science or electricity but on the laptop charger, it says:

INPUT: 100-240V~1.3A (so here in the UK, ie. from the power inverter, it does pump out 240V, so that'll equal to 240x1.3= 312Watt?

OUTPUT: 19.5V~4.7A (wouldn't that be 91.65Watt to charge/power the laptop at the end same time.

If this is correct, though I have no idea about this stuff. Then it surely does show that I need a 300W+ power regulator/inverter, but then I don't know any that you can plug in to the cigerrete lighter with that much juice.

Then yet again, why would I need 3x the power to produce the 90W output power to charge my laptop?

Doesn't make any sense.



Help.