What do I need if I want to charge my laptop in my car on road trips.?
450168
You can get an Inverter - a device that plugs into the cigarette lighter of the car and has a standard plug socket outlet for powering ordinary electrical items.\n\nThere's different types - some are just a converter so you need to be plugged in to your cigarette lighter with your laptop.\n\nOthers are a large battery enclosed in a carrying case, they're designed with car and caravan users in mind and most come with booster cables, work lamp, flashing warning lights etc.  There's different sizes but typically they'll power up to 200 or 300 Watts of appliances (a standard lightbuld is 40 or 60 Watts), a laptop is much less.\n\nWhen charged they'll run a small TV for many hours and a laptop for the best part of a day.\n\nYou should be able to pick a new one up for around $100 to $150.
909241
This could be complicated but could usually be done with PCMCIA USB adapter (if your laptop has standard PCMCIA slots) like the one found at http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?dest=9999999997&product_id=3942788&sourceid=1500000000000001827170 .
877037
easy,you got to let the charge leak out.when your a car you can take your shoes off and stuff like that but there really is nothing to worry about just because the voltage can range from 10 000 to 20 000 volts it does not necessarily mean its going to harm you, it has a very low current(which does harm in high doses.
94049
That depends. A lot of consumer electronics use a "wall wart" -- a transformer that converts AC to DC power. These usually have a coaxial plug in the device. Look at the transformer and see if it says something like 6VDC 200mA. It will also show which part of the plug is + and which is -. Now, if you want to run off a car battery, you can buy a car adapter that will fit these plugs. Or, you could buy a plug and a battery holder if you supply the right batteries. But the higher the mA rating (milliamps, 1/1000 of an amp) the less the batteries will last. So something running off 6V would require 4 D cells, for example and the right plug. Also if the adapter says AC you may not be able to use this method -- it would depend on the internal design of the device. Note that doing this has some risk of damaging your device though. Be careful and make sure you know what you are doing. If you don't know what you are doing, get someone  who is an electronics hobbyist (like a ham radio operator or an electronics student or teacher at a local school) to help you.\n\nAnother way is to use an AC inverter. This takes DC power (usually, but not always from a car battery) and converts it to plain old 110V. These have gotten much cheaper recently. If you aren't using a car battery, you can find units from Black and Decker and others that have gel cell batteries in them so you just carry around 110V AC. These go by names like "storm station" and you, of course, have to recharge the battery from time to time.
320442
Any inverter designed to run from a car battery which gives the current output you require should work. Connect the batteries in parallel for longer usage time. If you can get hold of a socket and battery connector from auto-parts supplier it would make connecting a single battery easy. Or did you mean you want to run your PC from your car anyway?
722052
Your car cigarette lighter will put out 12 to 14.4 volts DC at a pretty high current.  If your laptop takes a 12 volt DC external power adapter, then you can connect it directly.  My IBM Thinkpad adapter says it puts out 16 volts, so I would need a DC-to-DC converter to boost the 12 volts up to 16 volts.  One way to do that is to buy a cheap inverter from an auto parts store to make 120 volt AC, then plug the laptop's external power adapter into the inverter.
629622
Never. This allows your computer to charge its battery in case you want to unplug it for more mobility. It doesn't matter if your computer is one or off because it will still recharge the same way as usual.
866830
Put the notebook to in a dry place for 1 week..then\nTry to see if it starts up if not....then\nYou can buy external 2.5" HD caddy cases, so that you can take the Laptop harddrive out and put it in the caddy and connect to any computer with a USB port to transfer your data.\n\nCould be a costly repair job, if you've not got accident cover
516553
yes u can, u can either get usb/pcmcia or serial. \ni would speak to your local pc shop to see what would be best for your make of laptop.
704252
Just use four 12v car batteries in series = 48v, you can always hook them up to some renewable or rechargable source.
37340
For the battery life, I heard that it's better to take out the battery when you're using the AC adapter, unless you specifically want to charge it.\nOtherwise, the battery will charge, then discharge a little, then charge again, etc. and this may wear it out.\nFor the same reason, use the AC adapter whenever possible.\n\nBesides that, just be careful not to hit/drop/spill something on the notebook.\n\nAbout the first answer: "Frequent full discharges should be avoided when possible" and "Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery" (see the source below)
422528
Try pa powerport. Lots of links ther regarding Pa
970968
Have a look for a USB 1, they are small, consume little power and work well. \n\nmost computer or electrical places sell them
269354
procharger\n\nhttp://www.procharger.com/
749860
i depends on what you are going to use your laptop for if you are having it at a desk all day with power plugs close a low cell battery will be fine. but if you are going to travel lots there are advantages getting to higher celled battery and yes higher celled batteries do heat up more depends a bit on the brand
1559
Nope you really should not. Most batteries are lithium ion batteries that develop a memory over time. I learned that the hard way. I always left my laptop plugged in, and in a year my battery was completely dead. From what I know, you should do a complete cycle of the battery at least once a month. That means at least once a month, drain the battery to empty and charge it up again. Dont cycle too often though because that too shortens battery life spans... Soo just keep in moderation. Dont always leave it plugged in, but dont always rely only on your battery either.
175430
sure, you get a 12 volt adapter for the laptop and run it off of solar power or a rechargeable 12 volt battery with a plug in - or an inverter for the regular plugin.