110 Power?
 

We are going to take a laptop computer with us on our trip to Vatulele in October (to download/store pictures from our digital camera - not for work!!). Should we take an adapter with us? Thanks for your help.

Hi Basset:

Most laptops 'autosense' the power & switch, so you'll only adaptor for the wall outlet.

However, if your laptop only supports 110v then don't user a 110-220v power converter as only the most expensive (hundreds of $$) are 'clean' enough for the sensative electronics of a laptop. The small $20-40 ones are 'good enough' for general appliances (radios, razors) but not PCs.

Z

I took a laptop camera and CDWriter a few years ago, and a camera and Archos MMJukebox last trip - to Italy, to England, to France...

Look on the fine print on your power brick. If it says 100V-250V (or about those numbers) and 50Hz-60Hz, then it will handle the 220V in rest of the world. You just need the adapter, that converts the prongs to the right shape.

I think anything bought in the last 5 years will handle 240V, especially if it has an external power brick.

I also took a N.American octopus so I could use one adaptor for multiple N.A. devices at once.

MD, what is an octopus?

Sorry... An octopus is that thing the fire department always warns you not to use.

It's a 3 or 4-way block plug (usually cube-shaped) so you can plug several items into one plug - it has a socket on each face and prongs on one face. When you fill it full of extension cords, it looks like an octopus (hence the name) and can overload a socket and start fires if you plug too many high-powered things in at once.

I used a 3-way octo with 1 adapter (N.American to European) and could plug my camera charger, laptop, and CD Drive into one plug. The thing about Europe is that there seem to be a lot less plugs in the rooms than N.America.