Help With Laptop Cord Purchase

My Toshiba Satellite needs yet another cord. My replacement, which was not OEM, has pulled apart at the cord. As I searched for a replacement, I became confused. It seems my current cord is rated at 19V, 3.95A, and 75W. It seemed to work fine. As I searched for replacement cords, I noticed some, that were supposed to be for my model, were rated slightly differently. This one for example:

http://www.amazon.com/HQRP-A305-S6825-A305-S6829-A305-S6833-A305-S6834/dp/B001Q4FZW2

What gives? The laptop is a Toshiba Satellite A305-S6825 model # PSAG0U-00U00K.

Thanks for any guidance.

 

The cord linked to does not list the amps output, which is probably more important than the voltage. If your laptop requires 19vDC, you can get by with an 18v-20v as long as the amps are rated at 3.95a. I suggest going with a wattage higher than what your PC requires, so a 90w or even a 120w unit would be fine. Just don't go below the rating listed, which is 75w in your scenario. So, the charger you linked to should be fine, but it doesn't list the amps which is VERY important. The amps on the charger should match as close as possible the requirement on the PC, if the charger is a bit higher, that's better than being a bit lower; the watts on the charger can be over the requirement but DEFINITELY not under; the voltage can be +/- 1vDC or even 1.5vDC, but try to get as close as possible (obviously).

 

Amps on a battery and amps on a power supply are different.

In fact, batteries are usually rated in mA (milliamps). The higher the mA, the longer the battery lasts. For instance, a 6000mA battery for the same device will last twice as long as a 3000mA battery.

However, plodr, you are correct with wattage. Watts are volts times (x) amps. Volts are the frequency that the electricity travels, while amps is the "bandwidth" of power. If the wattage is too high, power will be forced. Amps, when it comes to batteries, refers to the "bandwidth" of the actual battery, or capacity.

This, of course, doesn't apply to desktop PSUs, since they regulate watts delivered.

 

:-o I was thinking in desktop PSU terms in that the PSU can deliver up to a certain amount of wattage and the PC will only draw what's needed. My bad....