New ac adaptor and now slow adsl !!

mcozican · 02-21-2008, 03:44 AM

The other day the ac adaptor for my Toshiba L10 Satellite stopped charging. I jiggled the output cord and it fell apart with a spark at what must have been the weak point (whilst still plugged into the laptop). I had to have it operational quickly so bought a universal adaptor and dialled in the right voltage. With it plugged in the battery charges just fine but my adsl broadband slows down to unusable levels and mostly stalls loading pages. Running just on the recharged battery, the adsl comes back nice and quick. I have tried it on two modems and same thing happens. What is going on?? Do I just need to find another adaptor? Thanks for your suggestions.

**TriggerFinger** · 02-21-2008, 09:56 AM

this may be a long shot but what is power rating of your universal adapter compared to your original power brick? Also you can try separating the modem from the adapter... I mean do not put them near each other (another long shot). whatever the result... let us know.

mcozican · 02-21-2008, 04:36 PM

Thanks fixmypc, the power ratings of the two adaptors are near identical but by going to the other end of the house and conencting via a 30 metre ethernet cable, the problem is fixed! There is a slight improvement with using a 3m cable over a 1.8 but still unusable. Also, since my post I found that the adaptor does not affect the use of the wireless connection so that works fine. Problem is that the most important use of my laptop is in my office near the modem which is not wireless. I will try another adaptor before buying a wireless modem! I would be interested in your reasoning behind making the suggestion about distance and what you think my findings mean in terms of what the cause of the problem is. Cheers

mcozican · 02-22-2008, 02:43 AM

I can now add that as it is Friday night, I have had a chance to tinker with my original adaptor and found that despite the output wire falling apart and shorting out the thing is still putting out the right voltage. So i soldered up the break and bingo back in business with no problems with my broadband! So from this we know that "universal adaptor" model stiger-008-101 does very strange things. The shop that sold it to me thought I was mad and of course I could not demonstrate the problem to them as they proffered an ethernet cable a mile long which I now know does not show up the problem. If it was not so bloody frustrating and consuming of time I don't have, it would be interesting!

**TriggerFinger** · 02-22-2008, 08:30 AM

that's great...

about the distance thing... i was thinking that the adaptor is a tranformer by nature, as such it can dissipate some magnetic signals that may affect other equipment beside it. yes, including the modem. but what does it have to do with the length of the ethernet cable... i do not really know.

02-21-2008, 03:44 AM	#1 (permalink)
mcozican Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 4 OS: vista	New ac adaptor and now slow adsl !! The other day the ac adaptor for my Toshiba L10 Satellite stopped charging. I jiggled the output cord and it fell apart with a spark at what must have been the weak point (whilst still plugged into the laptop). I had to have it operational quickly so bought a universal adaptor and dialled in the right voltage. With it plugged in the battery charges just fine but my adsl broadband slows down to unusable levels and mostly stalls loading pages. Running just on the recharged battery, the adsl comes back nice and quick. I have tried it on two modems and same thing happens. What is going on?? Do I just need to find another adaptor? Thanks for your suggestions.

02-21-2008, 09:56 AM	#2 (permalink)
TriggerFinger Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: USA Posts: 11,826 OS: Vista SP1, XP SP3, PCLinuxOS2007	Re: New ac adaptor and now slow adsl !! this may be a long shot but what is power rating of your universal adapter compared to your original power brick? Also you can try separating the modem from the adapter... I mean do not put them near each other (another long shot). whatever the result... let us know.

02-21-2008, 04:36 PM	#3 (permalink)
mcozican Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 4 OS: vista	Re: New ac adaptor and now slow adsl !! Thanks fixmypc, the power ratings of the two adaptors are near identical but by going to the other end of the house and conencting via a 30 metre ethernet cable, the problem is fixed! There is a slight improvement with using a 3m cable over a 1.8 but still unusable. Also, since my post I found that the adaptor does not affect the use of the wireless connection so that works fine. Problem is that the most important use of my laptop is in my office near the modem which is not wireless. I will try another adaptor before buying a wireless modem! I would be interested in your reasoning behind making the suggestion about distance and what you think my findings mean in terms of what the cause of the problem is. Cheers

02-22-2008, 02:43 AM	#4 (permalink)
mcozican Registered User Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Australia Posts: 4 OS: vista	Re: New ac adaptor and now slow adsl !! I can now add that as it is Friday night, I have had a chance to tinker with my original adaptor and found that despite the output wire falling apart and shorting out the thing is still putting out the right voltage. So i soldered up the break and bingo back in business with no problems with my broadband! So from this we know that "universal adaptor" model stiger-008-101 does very strange things. The shop that sold it to me thought I was mad and of course I could not demonstrate the problem to them as they proffered an ethernet cable a mile long which I now know does not show up the problem. If it was not so bloody frustrating and consuming of time I don't have, it would be interesting!

02-22-2008, 08:30 AM	#5 (permalink)
TriggerFinger Moderator Hardware Team Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: USA Posts: 11,826 OS: Vista SP1, XP SP3, PCLinuxOS2007	Re: New ac adaptor and now slow adsl !! that's great... about the distance thing... i was thinking that the adaptor is a tranformer by nature, as such it can dissipate some magnetic signals that may affect other equipment beside it. yes, including the modem. but what does it have to do with the length of the ethernet cable... i do not really know.