Can I use a 180W charger for HP ZBook 17 G3 (requires 200W)?

[CND6435GJJ]

Hello everyone,
I have an HP ZBook 17 G3 with the following specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i7-6820HQ @ 2.70GHz

• GPU: NVIDIA Quadro M3000M

I’ve been using this 180W power adapter for about a year without any obvious issues, but I recently discovered that my laptop is supposed to use a 200W adapter.

Here are the details of my current charger:

• Model: TPC-AA501

• HP Part No.: 681059-001

• Output: 19.5V ⎓ 9.23A (180W)

Is it safe to keep using this 180W adapter, or could it affect performance, charging speed, or long-term health of the laptop?
Thanks in advance for your advice!

[NonSequitur777]

@CND6435GJJ,

Welcome to our HP Community forum!

Your HP ZBook 17 G3 Mobile Workstation is indeed supposed to be powered by a 200-watt (19.5V, 10.3A) power adapter (4.5*3.0mm Blue Tip) with p/n: N3T70AV "200 Watt Smart PFC Slim AC Adapter 17" aka p/n: 835888-001 aka p/n: L00818-850 aka p/n: M31368-003 aka p/n: L00895-003.

My take is this: HP is not particularly known to 'over-engineer' their laptop power supplies -meaning, if they can get away with a minimum 200-watt power supply -they will, rather than say, upgrade a charger with an additional 40-watt just for comfort's sake. What this means in practical terms for you is that an 180-watt charger is chronically underpowering your laptop, especially if you use your laptop's full computational and graphics capabilities.

In addition, one of the negative side effects of an underpowered charger is that it gets hot -as in: finger-burning hot and such.

I regularly advice users to upgrade their power charger. In your case, I would very strongly recommend a 230-watt charger, such as this quality purchase option via Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQ6QRW6W/ref=sspa_dk_detail_6?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B0DQ6QRW6W&pd_rd_w=sk5Rj&con....

Let me put it this way: if I had an HP ZBook 17 G3 Mobile Workstation, this is what I would get.

Remember, an electronic device will only use the wattage it needs, nothing more, and nothing less. This charger will also not heat up like a waffle toaster.

Kind Regards,

NonSequitur777