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I bought my mom, who lives in India, a Panasonic toughbook CF-W8 a couple of years back. A few days back, due to some voltage fluctuations, her adapter/power cord blew out (along with a whole bunch or other stuff in the house). Her laptop is fine and she has used it a bit with whatever power it has remaining. I have bought a new adapter for her over ebay and it should reach her in 3-4 weeks. In the mean time my dad asked a friend of a friend to fix the adapter and now some random person has "fixed" the adapter.

Now I am a bit nervous about the state of the adaptor and have asked my mom not to use it since i don't want her to damage her laptop.

I was wondering if there is any way to test if the "fixed" adapter is safe for use? and also, I just want to confirm that it is indeed dangerous to actually try the adapter on the laptop since I have no idea if the person who fixed it knew what he was doing.

thanks,

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    The same way you'll check that the one over eBay is safe?
    – Graham Wager
    Nov 3, 2012 at 12:24
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    The tricky thing is that you have to get someone who brought the adaptor to a back alley electrician to get it fixed to see if its fixed properly. If he can explain what he replaced, its probably good enough. I'd ALMOST trust it if he can say why
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Nov 3, 2012 at 12:51
  • @GrahamWager oh no...
    – Amatya
    Nov 4, 2012 at 7:06

1 Answer 1

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  • Buy a voltmeter.
  • Turn the adapter around, read the ratings. It must be something like 18V, 12V, etc. The rating will be stated.
  • Plug in your adapter to the wall socket, turn it on but not connected to the laptop.
  • Measure the output voltage from the other end of the adapter. if it is close to what is stated [+ or - 0.5V] then you can plug in to the laptop. If there is a difference like + or - 5V, there is some fault.
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  • Be very careful. With the right (wrong) kind of damage, mains voltage may be passing through, and that can kill.
    – Bob
    Nov 3, 2012 at 13:19
  • @Fasih Khatib Thanks a lot. How do I transfer the question? Should I just create a new one there?
    – Amatya
    Nov 4, 2012 at 7:08
  • @Bob is right. You should be careful while dealing with mains. And I have flagged the post for moderator attention. They will move it or best is for you to create a new thread there.
    – A User
    Nov 4, 2012 at 8:18
  • Fasih, if you already flag it for migration, please don't tell the user to post a new question. We'd almost have migrated it and would end up with the same posts twice. Consequently I've closed this here now, sorry @Amatya.
    – slhck
    Nov 4, 2012 at 9:21
  • @slhck oops... I already created a new one there. Thanks for all the help anyhow.
    – Amatya
    Nov 4, 2012 at 10:34

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