DELL laptop charger causing my wireless signal to drop.

phezo

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Just figured out tonight why my wireless signal is piss now and again. i was downloading a torrent and my download speed was 617k, soon as i but the charger in it went down to 13k, i repeated this test about 6 times and it consistantly dropped from 617 to 13 in about 3 seconds.
i reckon its time for a new charger.
 
I'd check the BIOS (and Windows) settings to see if there is any power management enabled that could be set up wrong. I don't think it could be the charger as the laptop will have internal power supplies than regulate the 19V (usually, I think) from the wall socket power supply to whatever it uses.
 
I don't think it could be the charger

Why? Laptop chargers are switch-mode and naturally create RFI which can interfere with wifi. They usually have control circuits so that the degree of RFI is limited to meet regulations in the country of sale but, if those circuits fail, the output voltage/current will be unaffected. However, the interference could increase dramatically - this more common than you may think and can be failure in service or poor quality control.

Would be worth trying to find a M8 who uses the same power supply and trying theirs.
 
the neighbour gave me the laptop in question because i done him a few favours. the power supply does look old and nasty. not the original one. the laptop had charging issues in the past. i changed the charging board (DELL Inspiron 1525 Charging Board 48.4W006 | eBay). the board looked a bit battered when i got it but it solved the charging issue. will look out for a charger.

ps. i checked the power settings spectre, no probs there.
 
Is the WiFi adapter and aerial alright? All plugged back in after you opened the laptop up? Just wondering if it is some sort of antenna effect caused when you have a long wire attached.

Try the laptop with the charger plugged in but switched off and mains plug out.
 
no change with the charger plugged in while disconnected to the mains. download speed remains constant.
 
Could test H&H's RFI theory by unplugging the charger from the laptop and switching it on at the mains but I think they require a certain load to start up. Measure the voltage to make sure it doesn't sag under load if you have a 20Ohm resistor lying about with a high enough power dissipation rating.

That would test radiated emissions and not conducted emissions.
 
Okay, I know this is gonna sound way off the wall but...

...if you wrap the block and as much of the output lead in aluminium foil as possible the radiation (if it exists) will be reduced.

If the download speed improves - you've nailed it - charger fooked :)
 
Tin foil isn't that far fetched, I've known sandwich foil used twice at work during EMC investigation.

I'd be surprised if the PSU is radiating enough energy at frequencies the laptop WiFi is susceptible to. Typically switching under 100kHz. Ferrite choke on lead is an option to reduce conducted
 
you could try changing the wireless channel an see if that makes a difference lol before all the hi tech tin foil stuff.

Also another thing to check is in device manager, right click on the wireless adapter, click on properties and go through the settings to see if you can find anything. ie, when plugged in use less power or roaming aggressiveness or anything like that.

but i would change the channel first to see if it makes a difference.
 
got the new adapter today,still no joy. i had noticed that when i plug in my charger the screen gets brighter so looked at the display brightness settings and they were set to max. so i moved the slider down to the same brightness as when using the battery and B.I.N.G.O.

I dont think this is a proper fix but it will do for now.
 
Moving on from tin-foil (which works pretty well as an RF trap btw)...anything that switches produces harmonics. So, switch-mode PSU switching at 100kHz has harmonics at multiples of 100kHz - or it would if it was a pure sine wave, but it isn't. It's an approximation so there are odd-number harmonics...

I digress, reducing the LCD brightness would reduce power use. So, harmonic filtering would be more effective, finger points to filtering (capacitor) on the inbound side of the MB PSU or screen invertor.
 
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