If you read my post about my initial reactions to the M1330, you'll find that I was kind of bummed out about the new plug for the M1330.  The reason behind this is that I own a Dell 700m, which has a different type of plug, and I was thinking of using the extra 700m AC adapter to use on the M1330.

As you can kind of  see from this image, the plug for the new Dell M1330 is octogonal, unlike that of its predecessors, which is circular.  Before checking if the plug fits or not, I took a look at both adapters to see its power rating.  This is what I got from looking at both:

Power Rating:

	700m	M1330
Input (V)	120AC	120AC
Output (V)	19.5DC	19.5DC
Current (A)	4.62A	3.34A

 

If you don't know how they calculate the power rating of these AC Adapters before, let me go through it quickly.  For the adapter that came with with the M1330, it's power ratings is 65W.  How did they come up with this number?  Let's remember back to high school physics shall we?

P = I²R = IV = V²/R

In our case, we have the voltage (19.5) and the maximum current (3.34), which satisfies the second part of the equation for calculating power.

P = 19.5V * 3.34A = 65.13W

And that, my friend, is how they come up with the power rating for an AC adapter.  We have to remember though that the power rating means that the maximum power that the AC adapter can handle, anything more than that would be a no-no.  If we take a look at the above table, the first requirement for an AC Adapter is the specific voltage that it produces.  Since both the 700m and the M1330 uses 19.5V, this is good news.  So, the power rating for the 700m adapter is 90W, which is more than enough for the M1330.  We can safely say that the 700m adapter has enough power for the M1330, and most importantly the adapter needs to have the right voltage.

Since I know that the 700m adapter is safe for the M1330, the next thing is to make sure that it fits.  Before trying to jam things into the plug, I did a search on Dell's website for a M1330 adapter, look at that picture!  The plug is circular, lmao!  So, I turned off the M1330, unplugged the adapter, and slowly pushed the plug it into the laptop.  It fitted loosely, but it's tight enough for my purpose.  I just want to be able to plug my laptop in at home without being on battery power and without having to take the AC Adapter out of my bag.

Result: The 700m AC Adapter does work for the M1330!  From the looks of this, I would guess that the AC Adapter for XPS M1210 would also work here.  Don't take my word on it though, you should test it for yourself.

Disclaimer: Please do not use this blog as a reference.  If you break anything, I am not reliable.

Of course, if you follow the guideline above, most likely, you will not break anything.