Arch Linux

dumas

Member

From: Sydney

Registered: 2007-09-01

Posts: 103

Laptop suddenly charge only on 1st party adapter

Hi guys,

So I have two chargers for my 4 year old Dell XPS:

1. One that came with the laptop (BIOS says 45W)
2. Another is an Anker 60W adapter

I have used both to charge my laptop over the years. Starting yesterday, the 3rd party one stopped charging: the charging light, ACPI, and BIOS page indicate disconnection, regardless of which USB port I plug in, whereas the 1st party one seem to work. I have verified that the 3rd party charger charges my phone. Also, when the symptom first started, (I don't experience this now) the laptop keyboard was super messed up, super unresponsive, missing keystrokes as well as having "sticky" key events (e.g. wwwwwwwwwwww when I pressed w only once).

I could not correlate this with any actions I have recently, and have performed pacman -Syu and verified the the symptom persists.

I am freaking out a little bit on whether this is the beginning of the end of my main machine, or something that can be trivially dismissed? I have taken brief internet research and quick search on this forum, and I can't find any quickly available, solid information. So I would like to ask if you guys have any idea what is the root cause of the problem and solution? Perhaps:

1. a problem with the 3rd party charger, e.g. it is dying
2. I have been wrong to use the 3rd party charger on my laptop all along
3. the laptop battery is dying
4. the laptop is dying
5. something else

Sorry if it is stupid question and hope for some answers, even if it does not help me perhaps it would help others in the future as a reference

Update:

I read this: https://www.groovypost.com/howto/choose … ne-laptop/

And checks that my laptop has specs: 20V/2.25A
And 3rd party adapter: 5V=3A/9V=3A/15V=3A/20V=3A

So I'm guessing the match is 20V/2.25A and 20V/3A, the current specs in the adapter is slightly higher which should be fine.

Perhaps the 3rd party adapter is towards its end of life and can't maintain its specs? I'm hoping that's the case which would mean my laptop is still ok

Last edited by dumas (2022-03-14 02:05:57)

dumas

Member

From: Sydney

Registered: 2007-09-01

Posts: 103

Re: Laptop suddenly charge only on 1st party adapter

Hi guys,

More than a month since the issue, and I have only been charging my laptop with the 1st party adapter, and everything seems OK... I have not tried plugging in the 3rd party one, although I have used it to charge my phone.

Would this be a problem with the 3rd party adapter? I guess for my education and others' future reference it would be helpful if anyone has any idea.