Using an HP Power Brick with a Dell Laptop?

[Caveman]

Same capacity Power Brick and same connector. I plug it in and the Win 7 Tray icon for the battery shows that it's plugged in but "not charging". Wondering if it really is charging though and how dangerous it may be to be plugged in. Thoughts?

 

[Rifter]

same voltage?

 

[mindless1]

I can't list all the models of Dells this applies to, but many have a proprietary power brick with a thin center pin in the connector. This pin establishes a handshake with a chip in the brick to let the laptop know it's the right OEM power brick. It is a data connection, not just a continuity/resistance/etc analog signal that could be easily hacked (at least not worth the time=money).

If it does not get this handshake, it will not charge the battery and in some cases only run at a lower speed. Check the CPU speed under load with CPU-Z or equivalent.

IIRC Dell's claim was this is to reduce the chances of damage with an inadequate aftermarket power brick... which many people say is BS marketing to lock down power brick sales.

It is not dangerous, assuming the brick still has high enough current capacity to run it in that crippled state, which an OEM HP brick probably does but a generic POS might not. If the laptop is stable and the brick isn't overheating, you should be fine until you get a chance to score a cheap used Dell power brick off Amazon or eBay. IIRC the last one I won on an eBay auction was $6 + $5 S/H but I just picked the best option at the moment because it was for someone else who needed to use their laptop ASAP.