I recently got a refurbished Dell Precision 5550 that is supposed to come with a 130W charger, but I only received an aftermarket 65W charger. I was thinking that if I plugged in another 65W charger (since I have a couple) along with the first one, it might charge the laptop better. I'm curious if both chargers would be utilized together since their combined output is still under the 130W that the laptop and battery are designed for. Also, I'd like to know if it's even feasible to make a laptop that could take advantage of multiple lower-powered chargers. Any thoughts?
4 Answers
No, it won't work. The Dell Precision 5550 isn't designed to accept more than one power source, so it will only choose one charger to use. Even if you have two 65W chargers, the system won't take advantage of both. Plus, designing a laptop to utilize multiple lesser-powered chargers could create safety issues, making it impractical.
If you're asking where you'd plug in the second charger, just know the laptop actually has 3 USB Type-C ports for charging. But I tried connecting two chargers before, and my laptop just switched to the one with the higher output.
From what I've seen, the charging circuit will pick the charger that delivers the most power. So even if both are rated at 65W, one might be slightly more effective than the other, and that's the one the laptop will use.
I'd say it's a bad idea! Seems like a fire hazard waiting to happen if you're trying to power a laptop with two chargers meant for lower power. It's just not worth the risk.
Just a heads up, those Type-C ports can charge other devices even with the laptop lid closed, but you have to enable this in your BIOS. Only one port is specifically for charging the laptop itself, usually located at the back end of the side.