HP AC Adapter Overheating

[spklassen]

I have a Pavilion dv8000. Recently I've noticed the AC adpater gets super hot...like, I don't want to leave it on a surface too long for fear of starting a fire kind of hot; this seems only to be an issue when I have the laptop's battery installed and the AC adapter plugged in. When the battery isn't installed, the AC adapter doesn't get nearly as hot.

I've already checked HP's website and my battery isn't one on the recall list. I've run several tests on the AC adapter as per the HP website and it too appears to be fine.

I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this and how they solved it. Is it just a case of me having to buy a new AC adapter, or battery, or both? Or maybe none of the above? 

Thanks for your help!

[Gangles]

An educated guess tells me that the adapter attempts to charge the cells of the battery and there is something wrong so it causes the adapter to overwork and overheat. If you are running windows vista see if you can run the battery check in the total care advisor

[mrlz777]

What is super hot? You can't hold it in hand?

I have dv6000 and my AC adapter also get's really hot but it works fine 🙂  I think it has protection for overheating, if no so at first some parts will blow off inside adapter and I doubt it can start fire.

How many Watts your ac adapter is? Maybe it's 65W and it's too weak for your laptop.

[spklassen]

I'm running Windows XP Professional on my laptop.

[spklassen · Accepted solution]

Thanks for your response! Yeah, "super hot" is kind of objective isn't it! It gets too hot to hold in your hand without feeling as though your hand is going to burn. I looked at the adapter and it is only 65W and I too was wondering whether it was underpowering my laptop. Before running out and buying a new adapter though, I'm assuming HP would have specs on the maximum wattage recommended, which I'll check out now. If you happen to know or have other comments I'd love to hear from you. Thanks!

Further to writing the above I did more research...in April I had a 250G hard drive installed into my laptop; previously it had the factory standard 80G hard drive. From my reading it looks as though 65W may be too low a wattage to power the new hard drive and other laptop components. So, I've ordered a 90W AC adapter and will give that a shot....hopefully it does the trick!  

Message Edited by spklassen on 09-12-2009 05:12 PM

[wonderland]

Me and my son had Hp Pavillion Dv5 almost 4 months old but our ac adapter are busted already..:((

[Lezman]

Yep, super hot is how I would describe mine...now it cuts out on a regular basis and doesn't kick in again for several hours.  Just started happening over the past week.

[nikki662]

My advice is to get your money back Mine just cause a house fire. and I lost everything I own. because of it.

[nikki662]

yes it can start a fire and has. In as little as leaaving it alone for 5 minutes it ignited and burned don the top floor of my townhouse

[hlemberg]

I noted that this issue was marked as solved even though the message trail contains at least 2 references to serious house/condo fires associated with HP power adapter overheating.

I have a new HP Pavilion dv5t laptop -- it's two weeks old -- and noticed last night that the HP Power Adapter (part # 608425-003) supplied with the computer became too hot to touch while I was doing nothing more than casual web surfing. There was no unusual computer activity that would account for a high power draw -- no significant hard drive activity, no games being played, no software upgrades or system scans, no large downloads in progress. The high-capacity 6-cell lithium ion battery that was standard equipment on my system was more than 50% charged when this occurred. The 3-prong end of the power cord was firmly inserted in the power adapter, the power adapter cord was firmly seated in the laptop, and the grounded AC plug was plugged into my house AC current. I've had no problems with the AC electrical system in my house for a very long time -- years.

I'd suggest that HP go back to the drawing boards and look at whether the 65W power adapter referred to above is properly engineered and is, in fact, a suitable power adapter for the dv5t laptop. It seems that HP engineering, or Underwriters Labs, or Consumer Reports, should be looking more carefully at the thermal and electrical stability and safety of this laptop power adapter. I'm an engineer and am familiar with the issues raised here.

Anyone else have similar experiences?