Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange
Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [laptop]

Portable personal computer, normally with a foldable chassis

236 questions
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How does a USB C port provide the power to charge laptops?

I've heard about laptops such as the new Chromebooks that are charged via a wall charger that connects to a USB-C port. I'm quite happy that this will supposedly standardize laptop chargers but I'm a little unclear about how this works. Existing…
ZeroKelvinKeyboard
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Can FPGA out perform a multi-core PC?

I don't understand how FPGA can be used to accelerate an algorithm. Currently I'm running a time consuming real time algorithm on a quadcore laptop so that four computations can be done in parallel. I have been recently alerted that FPGA may yield…
Fraïssé
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Desoldering a tricky DC jack

I'm trying to replace a faulty DC power jack on a laptop, and having quite a difficult time with it. At this point, I'm not sure if the problem is with my equipment, or my technique. Equipment: Weller 50w temp controlled iron (max temp: 850f, ETA…
Mikey T.K.
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Why do laptop batteries have so many terminals?

Why do laptop batteries require so many terminals (upwards of 10 or more!)? Why not just a positive, negative, and a data pin? All the phones I've used only have three terminals, and I would think these these are more or less comparable devices,…
Coldblackice
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7
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Is there a standard I2C/SM bus protocol for laptop battery packs

I'm building a laptop with a custom battery pack. I know that the pack has to communicate through an I2C/SM port on the motherboard, but I don't know how to make the bios/os recognize it. Is there a particular I2C address and standard protocol on…
user51404
6
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3 answers

Do phone chargers communicate with the phone?

I have come across multiple YT videos (about the new higher USB power delivery and battery degradation) mentioning that chargers communicate with the phone or laptop when charging to avoid battery degradation, or avoid supplying too high a power. Is…
SoccerFan
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Can I clip an antistatic wrist band to an extension cord ground pin plugged into my wall outlet for laptop work?

I've done some small laptop stuff without the wrist strap, but I might replace a logic board of a MacBook and will be working on it for a long time. I have wrist straps and might as well use one. I'm real dumb when it comes to grounding stuff,…
Toddd
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3 answers

Headphone Noise from Laptop SMPS

I have been facing an issue that has been a mystery to me for quite some time, and I wanted to see if someone here can potentially give me more insights on this so I can understand why it is happening. Please bear with me since electrical…
user235909
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6 answers

why do laptops have 10 or 20 volt batteries if most components only use logic level voltages

I've noticed that often laptop chargers and batteries are higher voltages than logic levels, 1 to 5 v. I am building a laptop and was originally using 3.7 v lipo battery. I am curious if I should put them in series to get a higher voltage and get an…
Vesperk38
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How can I safely replace laptop battery pack cells before removing the old cells?

Replacing lithium ion cells in an old laptop battery pack, I want to connect the new cells in parallel before removing the old ones to avoid the BMS locking (if it even would do that). The pack uses three parallel pairs of cells in series to make…
Peter Buxton
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4
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1 answer

Hacking Dell charger to run directly from an external 19.5V power source

I needed to power my Dell laptop without having 220V (because my inverter is burnt in the middle of nowhere) in my van. By using a boost converter that can deliver the required power, I simply set the output voltage to 19.5V and used a spare cable…
ceremcem
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4
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5 answers

Laptop failure due to constant fluctuation of AC frequency and voltage

I spend most of time on a boat (not on holiday :/ ) where a huge generator provides electricity. The potential problem is that the output is very dependent of the "mood" of the engine. Sometimes the frequency of the AC that goes to the sockets of…
Adam Toth
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4
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2 answers

My multimeter probes are too big to measure a laptop battery

I'm having laptop battery problems, and the hardware manual gave diagnostic instructions involving measuring the voltage in the battery. So I bought a multimeter (never used one before in my life) and had a go... but the probes are too big. The pins…
Jack M
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Disconnected laptop's internal mic, but sound-card is still picking up sound, why?

I have a HP Mini 5103. A security minded friend wanted me to physically disconnect the internal webcam and stereo mic, no problem as both are individually connected to the motherboard via a wire harness. I unplugged both. After this simple…
user183896
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1 answer

Proper way to recover 18650 cells from laptop batteries

I'm looking for a tutorial on how to recover 18650 cells from laptop battery packs. Like what should I do, and what should I not do, how to test them to see their condition. The way I'm doing it now is break the battery case with a screwdriver and…
thelolcat
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