Gateway Parts

Is it safe to use my Gateway laptop charger on my Toshiba?

Have a newer Toshiba Satellite whose charger broke, Have a two year old Gateway laptop charger I wanna use instead. The plug fits into the laptop but I'm afraid to fry something (have fried batteries before) the Toshiba is a 19v 3.95A charger and the Gateway is a 19v 3.42A charger. I realize lower amp chargers just tend to charge your battery slower, but being a different brand I just wanted another opinion. Thanks

Public Comments

1. On those stickers where you got the info about voltage and amperage, it will have a symbol on it for polarity. Since the power bricks convert the household AC voltage to a DC voltage, and with DC voltage, polarity is critical, you need to be sure that the polarity is the same on both power supplies. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/AC_adaptor_polarity.png The center post will either be positive + or negative -, and it needs to be the exact same on both power supplies. If you plug in a power supply with reversed polarity, bad things could possibly happen. Shorting and overheating, sparking, smoking, etc. As long as they both have the same polarity, you should be fine, you will just need to watch the heat levels on the lower wattage power brick, as it might be depending on the laptop to not suck too much juice at one time. If it has its own built in current limiters (which it should) then again, you should be fine. I would just stay with it when it charges the first few times, check the heat from the power brick, if its too hot to keep your hand on it, then unplug it right away and buy a new one from Toshiba.
2. All chargers/adapters use DC, as they are the same voltage rating (the amps don't matter) if it fits, it'll be fine ☺