Charging Laptop in the Car

[Ozoriah]

I'm going on a long car trip (10 hour drive) and I would like to watch some movies on my laptop to pass the time. My laptop is more of a mobile desktop so its battery life leaves a bit to be wanted, so there's no way it could last through even one longer movie. I want to be able to charge it during the trip but I've encountered a problem.

I know that I can use a power inverter in the car's DC port, and I have a 140W inverter, but isn't working. Looking at my laptop, it appears that the adapter is a 230W behemoth. This is what it states under any retailer and the manufacturer specifications label it as 230W output. (For reference, the adapter is labelled as 100-240V and 3.2A input and 19.5V and 11.8A output)

So it appears that my inverter doesn't given quite the punch it needs to charge my laptop. Also, the DC ports inside the car are only rated at 120W so I'm not sure if I would be able to charge my laptop if I even bought a better inverter.

I'd appreciate if anyone could offer some help or possible solutions to being able to charge my laptop.

 

[Mister_MO]

This is quite hard, as you need get higher voltage than your car is giving. There is only one thing i can think about. Most power supplies for notebooks have its rated power for both running and charging battery, so with fully charged battery it takes much less power. So try charging your notebook fully, let it go to sleep mode, then connecting your adapter to your car so it can start without load, connect notebook and see if charge diode lights up, if yes let is sit around 5 minutes and then wake it up and see if it works fine, but avoid any kind of usage that can heavily load gpu. Ideal would be disabling nvidia gpu and just use intel one if your notebook have dual graphics.

 

[Ozoriah]

This is quite hard, as you need get higher voltage than your car is giving. There is only one thing i can think about. Most power supplies for notebooks have its rated power for both running and charging battery, so with fully charged battery it takes much less power. So try charging your notebook fully, let it go to sleep mode, then connecting your adapter to your car so it can start without load, connect notebook and see if charge diode lights up, if yes let is sit around 5 minutes and then wake it up and see if it works fine, but avoid any kind of usage that can heavily load gpu. Ideal would be disabling nvidia gpu and just use intel one if your notebook have dual graphics.

Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely give it a try when I can. Unfortunately I only have an Nvidia gpu so disabling that wouldn't work, unless I just wanted to listen to the movie audio. But who wants that?

 

[jarotech]

Hi, what you need is a 350W inverter connected directly to the battery passing through a fuse, I did it and it works perfectly.

 

[Ozoriah]

Hi, what you need is a 350W inverter connected directly to the battery passing through a fuse, I did it and it works perfectly.

Oh I know I easily just get a higher wattage inverter and attach it directly to the battery, but that's not exactly convenient when you're travelling inside the car. Would only really work if I was perhaps camping somewhere.

I need to be able to charge my laptop from within the car during the trip.

 

[jarotech]

What I did is connect one side of a fuse to the positive of the battery, on the other side of the fuse I connect a wire that goes into the car and to the red connector of the inverter. The black wire of the inverter is connected inside the car to the body. You must isolate the fuse and pass the wire where it does not interfere with the moving parts.

 

[Ozoriah]

What I did is connect one side of a fuse to the positive of the battery, on the other side of the fuse I connect a wire that goes into the car and to the red connector of the inverter. The black wire of the inverter is connected inside the car to the body. You must isolate the fuse and pass the wire where it does not interfere with the moving parts.

I'd like to be able to watch some movies on the trip but I'd rather not rig up my car in such a way to do so, I had considered something similar but I decided against it. Thanks for the tip though.

 

[USAFRet]

1. Please tell me you're not driving.

2. Audiobooks, instead of a movie.

 

[Peter Martin]

audiobooks are just as distracting as texting. your mind needs to focus on the words and make visual images of it. this is horrible for driving. watching movies while driving is even worse.