Has anyone ever purchased Third Party Laptop Adapter from eBay.

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quebec

852 posts

Ultimate Geek

#172004 8-May-2015 09:20

Has anyone ever purchased Third Party Laptop Adapter from eBay. I am looking to buy one for a Samsung Ultrabook. there are two which I have shortlisted. One looks very generic and the other one seems to be made by Delta Electronics. Price difference is not much but just wanted to know if anyone has experience buying these from eBay and will there really be any difference between these two as far as inside components are concerned?
Oh and I will be selling the laptop once adapter arrives.
Thanks
http://www.ebay.com/itm/291424982063?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

http://www.ebay.com/itm/261822874576?_trksid=p2055119.m1438.l2649&var=560681841785&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Xeon

302 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1300469 8-May-2015 10:00

Branded = Generic + sticker
Personally I would buy from aliexpress, take into account if it includes NZ cable and/or local cost of cable (if you don't have one already).

Batman

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#1300470 8-May-2015 10:00

i did that exercise once, and calculated cheaper on trademe

quebec

852 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1300496 8-May-2015 10:12

Xeon: Branded = Generic + sticker
Personally I would buy from aliexpress, take into account if it includes NZ cable and/or local cost of cable (if you don't have one already).

Already have cable and I find alibaba very complicated as I couldn't find anyone who would ship 1 piece of this adapter. So the cheaper one out of the two above is good enough? Don't want to pay $7 extra just for a sticker.

RUKI

1402 posts

Uber Geek

#1300555 8-May-2015 12:01

What is the voltage/amperage?
I have many genuine laptop adapters - voltage vary around 19V, but cables differ.
As for inside - schematics is similar, but with genuine ones - quality is way higher than non-brand even if both made in China.
If you have a cable with connector you need or it is a standard plug - then it can be soldered to the existing power block.
The only issue I see here is that those are usually not dismantable - they are glued and need to be brake-open and then re-glued - not ideal option.

1101

3122 posts

Uber Geek

#1301988 11-May-2015 14:48

Xeon: Branded = Generic + sticker
.

I'll call BS on that...
Branded = quality (usually)
Branded = will usually last longer than the laptop (thats why Ive got a huge box full of laptop power packs)

unbranded: its a crap shoot. It may last years, it may fail within a week, it may be unsafe to use, its ratings may be exaggerated.
It may even be made out of old used components (it happens) .

AHitman

85 posts

Master Geek

#1302257 11-May-2015 20:44

I'm not buying unbranded adaptors again.
I had to purchase half a dozen for HP laptops, they were cheap and appeared to work fine when I got them.

However we soon noticed that the trackpads would not work correctly with them plugged in, the cursor would jump all over the place.....
I suspect it was poor grounding within the adaptor, earthing the laptop with my finger on the USB port "fixed" the issue.

The savings are not worth the potential headache IMO

Sideface

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#1302277 11-May-2015 21:27

1101: Branded = will usually last longer than the laptop (thats why Ive got a huge box full of laptop power packs).

+1

It's not worth the risk of getting a Brand X charger - you don't know what's inside, and you can't look inside without destroying it.

Sideface

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RUKI

1402 posts

Uber Geek

#1302445 12-May-2015 08:27

.....

- you don't know what's inside, and you can't look inside without destroying it.

In many cases looking inside would be not nessesary. You can do few tests on power supply without opening it to tell if it does not deliver:
a) Test the earthing with voltmeter
b) Test the current under load ( I do this regularly on different power supplies - yesterday 12V rated power supply (made in Korea) showed 11.6 V idle and 9.6V under 0.5A load!)
c) Temperature - very important to avoid risk of fire: I have tools to record temperature graphs on multiple channels with time but simple tools can be used like LM chip
d) Drop test - you can drop it from 1m on the concrete floor and see if it falls apart and conduct tests a) - c) again after that :)

raytaylor

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#1303234 13-May-2015 01:42

Just get a cheap genuine looking one off trademe - not as expensive since many are refurbished / collected from laptops that have failed- but are still genuine and as stated above, usually will last longer than the laptop.

Ray Taylor

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