Dell Latitude C400 charger

psarinuk

Hi all

I've an old Dell Latitude C400 laptop which is running very well and is only used for surfing.

The only issue is the charger (PA-8 family I think) whose cable around the square plug (that goes into the laptop socket for charging) develops a kink over time.

I've already bought 2 replacement chargers over time due to cable kinking and even this one has developed a kink and charges intermittently now..

I've however a brand new dell charger which is from the new PA-10 family (the ones with rounded plugs that go into the laptop socket for charging).

Is there a way to use this new charger for my C400? I was thinking maybe some converters are available that I can fix on the rounded end of plug and the other end of the converter would be a flat/ square one to plug into the laptop.

That way it would be lot cheaper and I would not have to buy another charger for this oldish laptop now.

Any sort of help or guidance would be highly appreciated..

Many thanks in advance..

fwor

That's not an easy one to solve, because AFAIK the square power plug is Dell-specific - I've never seen one fitted to anything else.

To make matters worse, recent Dell power supplies communicate with the laptop to make sure you don't save money by using a non-Dell power supply, and that it matches the model in terms of power requirement.

There are reputed to be work-arounds that involve soldering different sockets onto the motherboard, but I guess it's much less aggro just to keep buying secondhand chargers from Ebay at £15 each when they break.

Colin_Jensen

I wouldnt bother trying to hack it, sell the pa-10 on ebay.

The pa-10 has a center pin that gives a slight reading to the laptop. If you had a D series laptop and tried a cheapo replacement adaptor that didnt send the right data through the center pin - you could only use it connected to the mains, it will not allow you to charge the battery.

For more information about this center pin click here
If the pa-10 is a genuine adaptor - it will be worth something to someone!

Then simply buy a C series of ebay.