Can I use the G variant charger?

Suvan

My laptop is an acer aspire a515-43. there is a G variant one with a dedicated gpu. it has a 65 Watt power supply but mine is only 45W. can I use the charger which come with the G version of this laptop?

also does my laptop have the same motherboard with respect to an acer aspire 3 a315-42/a315-42G?

aphanic

Yes, of course you can, you can use any charger you want actually (even if it weren't Acer made).

This applies to any kind of electronics, except there are also ID wires instead of only power + and -:

• 1st you need to check the voltage the device is expecting: being a laptop it's probably in the 19v range, a phone would expect 5v minimum, etc. It has to match, and that's important. There are some tolerances, it could be +-10%, but try to stay as close as what you're required to (internally there are power regulators that adjust things though).
  
  For laptops it is usually labelled underneath, in a sticker saying DC rating with voltage and current ratings.
  
  
• Current, at the same voltage, a 45w charger is able to provide less current than a 65w one, but that's something the peripheral decides. For example, if you connect a phone to a charger that is capable of outputting 6A at 5v don't think your phone is going to charge that much faster, it has the current if it requires it, it can ask for up to 6A, but it will probably stay in the 2A range.
  
  Same happens in reverse, if a phone is able to charge at 2A (I'm using phones because it's easier to explain, but applies to anything) and you connect it to a 5v 1A charger it will charge just at 1A. It will take longer, but it will get the job done... unless the demand is greater!

That last thing is what's important when going from an more powerful charger to a lesser one, the later may not be able to provide enough oomph for the thing to charge. If it is consuming, say, 65w by being turned on and working, and you connect it to a 45w charger, you'll be depleting the energy stored in the battery slower, because you're helping it with the charger, but it won't be charging anytime soon.

I hope I didn't make a mess out of the explanation, but that's how it works more or less.

As for the motherboard, nope, it's not the same, but quite similar or close enough. The G after the model number is used when it has a dedicated graphics card, the motherboard may very well be the same, just with less chips: In essence, where the graphics card would be there'd be an empty space and look like something's missing.

Take a look at my motherboard for example, there are sub-models of mine that come with RAM soldered into the motherboard, but mine doesn't. Notice something missing here?



That's it, the darn RAM (they could have added another socket on its stead but no, that'd cost more money when we can just repurpose what we have (everyone does it, it's not an Acer thing, it's economy of scale).

Same goes for the motherboard itself, notice that MODEL: ZAW in the middle of that section, ZAW is actually the A515-54, ZAW2 is the A515-54G, which is mine. That's why I said that the motherboard itself isn't the same, but it's close enough or quite similar.

Suvan

@aphanic ok thanks.

I asked the question because the 3500u on my laptop is too under powered, and i think its due to the charger.

I have seen many laptops (cheaper than mine) with a 3500u having a 65W charger. My laptop has a 15 inch display.

The G variant comes with a 65W adapter. so I can use it right?

and also i know about the difference between the G variant and the non G variant

I wanted to ask if the motherboard of the acer aspire a515-43/a515-43G is similar to the motherboard found in the acer aspire 3 a315-42/a315-42G

aphanic

Suvan said:

@aphanic ok thanks.

I asked the question because the 3500u on my laptop is too under powered, and i think its due to the charger.

It could be because of the way it was set up during manufacturing (if they altered the base frequency, tweaked boost limits, etc.), it could be because that laptop is not using double channel an the others do, it could be because of how the VRMs are being cooled as they're generally not covered by any heatsink, I really don't have any authoritative answer as to why yours is underpowered I'm afraid. Did you run any benchmarks? How do you see it being underpowered?

But if it's due to the charger, the 65w one is capable of delivering more power to it, that's for sure. And yes, you can use it, check the voltage first, but it'll most likely be 19v.

Suvan said:

I wanted to ask if the motherboard of the acer aspire a515-43/a515-43G is similar to the motherboard found in the acer aspire 3 a315-42/a315-42G

 For that we'd need schematics of both boards, or both of them to physically compare, but we have none of those things (at least I don't).

Suvan

oh ok thanks anyway

if anyone else knows, please let me know.