I figured out why it is called a 'brick'... compared to the rest of the computer it is 'dumb as a brick'! Hardy har-har..... On 10/19/09, mike havens wrote: > > Thanks for the tutorial. It was very informative! I took the battery out > the moment you told me to test that . So far no crashes but I've had it go > days without crashing so I suppose it is just a wait and see type of thing. > > On 10/19/09, Jim March <1.jim.march@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> On Mon, Oct 19, 2009 at 8:03 AM, mike havens wrote: >> >> > so the prick is the power supply? Thanks for the help.... I am so >> thankful I >> > found you guys. You all are so helpful and friendly. >> >> >> Well mostly :). OK, here's how power management really works in a laptop. >> >> The "brick" turns AC wall power into DC. I just picked up a Dell >> brick off my floor, it's putting out 19.5v DC. That's the main power >> supply, what most people just call "the power supply". Like most of >> these bricks, my Dell brick can take in foreign-spec AC (220v at 50 >> cycles) in addition to US-spec. >> >> Once DC gets into the laptop, a much much smaller DC-to-DC power >> supply turns it into 12v, 5v and usually 3.3v or so. Sometimes 2.8v. >> It's very, VERY uncommon for that part to break, because it's not >> under as much stress. The reason the main power supply (AC-to-DC >> "brick") is external at all is because it heats up from the amount of >> work it does...and because they blow up a lot, the makers want to be >> able to quickly swap them with no screwdriver involved. By the time >> power gets all the way into the laptop past the brick, a lot of the >> "heavy lifting" power conversion is already done by the brick. The >> laptop is being spoon-fed something very easy to digest. >> >> If the DC-to-DC internal power supply blows, you're screwed - it's >> part of the motherboard most of the time. But you're also having an >> astonishingly unlucky day if that happens, I've never seen it myself. >> >> There's one more circuit involved: the "battery charge controller". >> This takes DC in and spoon-feeds it in and out of the batteries, >> detecting when the batteries are full and chopping power when they >> are. Good ones slowly back off the power as it gets close to full. >> That circuit is built into the battery pack itself, so swap batteries >> and you swap that. The laptop can run without it, and if that charge >> controller goes bonkers it can cause problems such as you're having. >> Hence as a test run it without the battery, eliminate that as an >> issue. >> >> The reason you have the charge controller in the battery is to allow >> different capacity battery packs. You can order three different >> grades of battery off of Dell for example for my laptop, and each will >> have different charge controller settings for their respective >> internal battery arrays. >> >> That's how laptop power works. >> >> Desktop power supplies are simpler: they take AC in, put out the >> various DC types the system needs. Even then most motherboards will >> have a small DC-to-DC power supply on board to feed very clean and >> precise stuff to the CPU and in many cases vary the CPU voltage under >> software control. >> >> >> Jim >> --------------------------------------------------- >> PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us >> To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: >> http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss >> > > > > -- > :-)~MIKE~(-: -- :-)~MIKE~(-: