charging Decrease charger effectiveness?

[therealerijon3]

Is there a way to decrease charger effectiveness? My charger gets really hot, and my computer charges very quickly. I don't want the charger to break though, is there any way to manually make it less effective and in the process less hot?

[Christophe Corazza]

What device are you charging?

Is it a generic charger/cable?

[GoodBytes]

8 minutes ago, therealerijon3 said:

Is there a way to decrease charger effectiveness? My charger gets really hot, and my computer charges very quickly. I don't want the charger to break though, is there any way to manually make it less effective and in the process less hot?

Assuming you are using an official charger, it is operating as it should.  If you are concerned you can contact the manufacture to confirm that it is normal operations, or have it replaced under warranty (they'll probably just ship you another one). Now, if the charger is designed to break after the warranty ends, than that is a different story, and never buy that brand again (or do a class-action law-suit for fighting for a minimum-expected lifespan of a device, if current local laws in your region doesn't have this)

 

That said, in the BIOS/UEFI of your laptop, you sometimes have the option to enable or disable quick charging. It might be called "Express charging" or some variation.

[Christophe Corazza]

Obviously,

 

1 hour ago, therealerijon3 said:

really hot

 

is very subjective.

See if others with the same computer also report this issue.

Either way, if you think it's not normal, you should contact the manufacturer to ask for a warranty repair or replacement.

[Beef Boss]

Just because something heats up, does not mean it's malfunctioning. 

 

If you're worried about a fire, well let me put it this way. You're more of a fire hazard than your charger is because you're asking a forum, "oh hey, I have this thing plugged it and it gets super hot is that safe??" 

[Christophe Corazza]

2 hours ago, aki adaki said:

If you're worried about a fire, well let me put it this way. You're more of a fire hazard than your charger is because you're asking a forum, "oh hey, I have this thing plugged it and it gets super hot is that safe??" 

 

I think @therealerijon3 is more concerned about damaging the charger (as mentioned in the original post) rather than causing a fire. Although I assume he knows that it’s not a good idea to leave such a charger alone all covered up with flammable material (sheets of paper etc.) while it’s charging. ;-)

[Sniperfox47]

Many chargers, especially high wattage ones for more powerful laptops, get very hot when in use. It's not typically a problem because most of the components can handle temperates of 100-125°C under normal working conditions and still be fine. You're not likely to damage anything. Just make sure it's out in the open where it can dissipate heat and you'll be fine.

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Uncomfortably hot for humans to touch is normally somewhere around 50C (60C is when burns start to happen). That's fine for electronics to be at assuming the rest of the parts are around there.

[Christophe Corazza]

1 hour ago, Sniperfox47 said:

Many chargers, especially high wattage ones for more powerful laptops, get very hot when in use.

 

It would therefore be quite useful if we knew the device that he’s trying to charge.

[Zodiark1593]

1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

Uncomfortably hot for humans to touch is normally somewhere around 50C (60C is when burns start to happen). That's fine for electronics to be at assuming the rest of the parts are around there.

To think that the temperature in our handheld devices reach the 50C mark with little effort.

 

The charger on my 8 year old laptop got pretty toasty during gaming and extended render/encoding (days at a time) sessions. The thing still lives, as is the laptop for that matter.

[Mira Yurizaki]

9 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

It would therefore be quite useful if we knew the device that he’s trying to charge.

It's likely a laptop considering OP said "computer"

[D13H4RD]

The wallwart that I use for my iPad Pro gets very warm during the first 45%, and then gradually becomes cooler as the charging process progresses.

 

Same goes for my Note8 and it's especially true for the DASH charger included with the current OnePlus phones

 

It's just the nature of charging devices. My laptop's powerbrick gets warm too

[Christophe Corazza]

25 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

It's likely a laptop considering OP said "computer"

 

Obviously, it would probably be a laptop.

However, which laptop... since that can make a big difference.

[Sniperfox47]

1 hour ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Obviously, it would probably be a laptop.

However, which laptop... since that can make a big difference.

And whether it's a charger from OEM or a third party

[therealerijon3]

Dell Latitude E5440, laptop, I got this computer in my old school and got to keep it when I ended last grade on that school. The original charger I got broke (bent in the contact at the PC), so I asked someone who was responsible for the computers for a new charger, and he gave me this. There's some text on the charger, I'll type it here, and include a screenshot with some computer info.

 

DELL

 

65W

 

Output: 19.5V, 3.34A

Input: 100-240V, either 17A or 1.7A, 50-60Hz

 

It has gotten so hot that touching for more than 1-3 secs is pretty unpleasant.

 

[Christophe Corazza]

This is a common problem with Dell laptops. There are complaints of people about their out of the box charger getting very hot. Apparently, after contacting the Dell customer service, they receive a power adapter at a higher power rating. And yes, this also concerned the Latitude E series.

 

However, I don’t think that doing this is possible in your situation since it’s an onder laptop that you’ve received from your school.

 

I notice that the Latitude E5440 requires a 90 W power adapter, so that explains why your 65 W is getting extremely hot. So, I would strongly advice you not to use this adapter anymore! Buy a new one instead.