Sony and Kensington 120W

Well I was not too smart and purchased a new Kensington 120W DC power adapter to go with my SZ. After opening the package, I've just found out that I should have purchased the AC power adapter. The DC is the car/plane adapter, while the AC is the wall adapter.

Does anyone know if most of the power adapter unit is the same for AC and DC? Since the Kensington seems pretty modular, where I could get the AC portion (the part that goes from the wall socket to the main brick)?

 

i lost the dc part of mine and they sent me a whole new one. you cant beat that kind of customer service. not sure if they are the same. but they are different on the igo. they dont seem to sell different parts seperately.

on another question someone said you posted a list of necessary services/processes that are safe to turn off. i cant find it. could you point me in the right direction

 

That's a good idea.. maybe i can contact kensington. I've also found out that they have a Travel power adapter, but it looks like extra expense and bulk. doh.

PM'd you about the processes thing, but i might as well post it here as well. It's http://majorgeeks.com/page.php?id=12

 

i have both the 120 kensington and the 120 igo and there is no comparison the kensington wins hands down. thanks for the pm

 

Does the Kensington 120W come with a UK power adaptor? You can't buy 120W ones in Europe so I'm stuck with the Sony house brick.

 

No, it is a 110V part, not universal range.

 

mine worked in london. with no fire. i just got a conversion plug from the front desk (not 220 to 110 just a pin thing)

 

I'm going to buy the 120W one on my next US visit. Since I won't be bringing another charger I'm hoping they are easy to find. Checked CompUSA and they seem to generally be in stock so I hopefully will have no problem getting one.

Are the strange plug types on these some sort of agreed standard. The Kensington ones seem so similar to the Targus ones and they don't seem to be the same company selling under different brands/badges.

 

Amazon has it for about $56 now, out of $139.99 retail
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...4845/ref=pd_bbs_1/102-1738427-7625750?ie=UTF8

 

if i had to do it again, i'd buy one off eBay. You can get them at a fraction of the retail price.

 

WOW! What a price drop. I'm gonna order one right now. I hope they don't come out with a better one next month.

 

Thanks for posting!! Great deal! I also ordered the Sony adaptor pack which costs an extra $13.

 

A little followup to my inital post. I called Kensington to see if they could provide me with the AC part for my adapter. Instead, they have sent me a brand new complete AC/DC adapter package, tips and all.

Needless to say, I am extremely happy with Kensington's customer support and now have the part I need to travel with my SZ.

 

isn't that amazing. as i said earlier they did the same for me. i hope people don't take advantage of them. if sony's service was 1/10th of theirs...

 

Price is back up to $85 after rebates. Glad I picked mine up at $56.

One question for everyone...how do you exactly use the dc(car) adaptor? I don't understand how to connect my SZ to the car cigarette lighter using that adaptor. It connects to the airplane adaptor but to nothing else.

 

dude there are two parts one for airplanes and one for cars

 

dude, maybe I didn't get the right parts then cuz in my instruction manual there is a picture of an auto connector and an air connector and they connect to each other. I just don't understand how this is supposed to connect to my notebook.

 

AHHH! After playing with it just now, I just realized there is another port on the power adaptor on the side for the auto/air connector!! I feel dumb.

 

well so do i, i didn't understand your question

 

I am VERY confused by this thread. There are two part numbers for 120watt kensington power adapters.

33196: 120 Watt Notebook DC Power Adapter
33197: 120 Watt Notebook AC/DC Power Adapter

I would expect the adapters to be quite different internally. I would be very surprised if the only difference between the two was the cables that were included with them.

To go from AC (Wall outlet electricity) to DC (what batteries use) you need to go through the process of rectification. This requires some circuitry.

To go from DC to DC, you don't need to do anything, except assure that you have clean electricity (regulation) and the proper voltage.

Now, maybe for manufacturing cost savings they only produced one unit and marketed it two different ways, again that seems unlikely.

Could someone please shed some light on this dilemma?

-PHiZ

 

I have both.

The DC is small, about the size of a Marlboro cigarette pack. This one is for airplanes and cars.
The AC/DC is much bigger and is about twice the size. This one is for wall sockets, airplanes and cars.

The only parts that are interchangeable between the two are the tips.

 

hi
i asked one of my friends to get me a 33197 ac/dc 120w in the us because i'm from germany.

i have problems when i'm using the kensington power supply here in germany with a adaptor for the socket.

i have a sony vgn-sz2 with the right smarttip n27. as soon as i connect my laptop to the power supply it starts to vibrate a little bit.
anyone having the same phenomena?

 

I just ordered one here:
http://www.jr.com/JRProductPage.process?Product_Id=4175060&JRSource=linkshare.datafeed.KEG+33197-RB

Refurbished, but $31 inkl S/H.

 

Great price. Heck, when I bought mine in April 2006 I paid about $120.

 

No vibrating so far

BTW.: Kensington is going to send me the N27-tip for free!
Even for the refurbished adapter! Awesome service!

 

do you have a sz200 or a sz2xp?

 

Look in my sig:

VGN-SZ250P/C

 

just got the Kensington 120w. the wire connecting to the laptop is very long though. anyone know of something that can shorten it? like a roller or something?

thanks

 

You may be interested in Kensington Travel Cable Winder
.

 

ya thats perfect. thanks

 

does anybody know if the long term effects of charging with the Kensington is bad for the battery? it seems like my battery life is incredibly short (my second battery has already died on me)