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Laptop power supplies, does current matter?

My laptop Charger is 19.0v and 6.5A, it was broke yesterday. I tried to find a replacement, but couldn't so I got another one with 19v and 4.7A, I was wondering if its okay to use it and if its going to break anything?

My laptop is a DV6 I7 15.6".

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4.7 is quite a bit lower than 6.5. As such it probably won't be able to charge the laptop's battery when the laptop is under moderate load, and heavy load will cause it to drain the battery. It should still charge when idle or off though.

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    Or the laptop could try to draw too much current, causing the adapter to overheat and possibly blow a fuse (in the adapter). I wouldn't use it, personally. Also, check the polarity.
    – Bob
    Aug 22, 2012 at 11:34
  • what if i plug it without the battery ? as the battery is broke and i never use it? will it cause problems to the laptop it self ? like performance etc ?
    – Stacker
    Aug 22, 2012 at 11:35
  • It may cause errors or even shut down under heavy loads.
    – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
    Aug 22, 2012 at 11:36
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    @Stacker Oh, forgot to mention, some manufacturers (e.g. Dell) have a signal from the power supply indicating its capabilities. If the signal is missing or indicates a lower current, the laptop will typically go into a low power mode, where it won't charge and may underclock some components. This depends entirely on the laptop; I'm not sure what HP does. In general, it's much safer and not too expensive to get a properly rated power supply.
    – Bob
    Aug 22, 2012 at 11:45
  • @Bob - You've got it right there, with blowing the fuse. I have a Sager laptop that draws a higher wattage than my power inverter provides, and when I'm just on the desktop or running light games, it works, but when I tried to start up Diablo 3, it burnt out the fuse.
    – SaintWacko
    Aug 22, 2012 at 14:00

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