I have a Dell Laptop, which as you know, comes with crappy AC Adapters and mine is starting to break. Anyway, has anyone ever used a 3rd party adapter? The Dell ones cost $60, and I found one called "GEP Replacement Adapter" on Amazon that's only $20. I figure since the Dell ones are made like crap and break in 1-2 years anyway, then it's better to just get 3rd party. It's got some good star reviews on Amazon, but I want to make sure it won't destroy my laptop since it's not made by dell. Dell used to have refurbished ones that were good price and worked fine, but now they don't. This always happens right before a semester/Dolphins season. Don't want my computer to break!
Targus makes a solid line of aftermarket power supplies but you are looking at a starting price of roughly $75 and up to the $150 range. At those prices you would better off getting the appropriate part from Dell for your laptop.
Try this site, it's very good and they seem to specialize in Dell products. I got my projector there as well as a few workstations for my mom's office. http://www.discountelectronics.com/index.php?l=z&c=28
Whatever you do don't get an universal adapter, I did that for my last laptop (Dell) and it burnt out the AC port. However I do know people that got a knock off dell adapter on ebay for $10 and it still works. Now of course you want to make sure you get the right adapter for your Dell laptop model (65w, 90w, etc.) and once you do that simply search it on ebay. Of course this is just an option and I can't say it'll be as safe as a Dell adapter I am just speaking from personal experience. Here is quick sample page on ebay where I just searched "dell ac adapter": http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m570.l1311&_nkw=dell+ac+adapter&_sacat=See-All-Categories
Thanks for suggestions. I just got an adapter from Dell this time[next time i'm going the cheap knockoff route], and it is for my model, however my current one which seems to be breaking is octagon shaped like the port, and the one they sent is a full circle. Does that really matter?