Laptop charger replacement?

Just found that my new laptop charger lead has been caught in the mechanism of my recliner chair causing it to kink and expose bare wire. Would I be able to safely use the charger from my old laptop. Both are Acer models, the old charger is rated at 19V / 3.2A but the new one is rated at 19V / 2.1A.

Should be fine, the old one can provide more current than the new one so won't be overloaded. If the ratings were the other way round it could be a bit risky.

Main thing is to make sure the polarity of the output jack is the same, it generally is for a given manufacturer.

As for the bare wire- is it on the mains or the DC side? The reply only affects the thickness of insulating tape you need

Alternatively, cut the damaged section out and use a suitable in-line cable connector to join the ends up again.

Something like this would be fine- it's a bit overkill if it's on the DC side but that doesn't matter.

Edited by billford (Sun 21-Dec-14 13:06:14)

Ta for that. I will go for the tape option until I get a suitable connector to cut out the affected section.

In reply to a post by billford:

Should be fine, the old one can provide more current than the new one so won't be overloaded. If the ratings were the other way round it could be a bit risky.

Dell have three different chargers for the same laptop ... 65W, 85W and 95W. The laptop will only try to take the max current the PSU can provide and actually knows which is connected - the PC complains if I use a 65W on a docking station for example.