Power supplies for Inspiron 8100 and 8200

I believe the 8100 uses the older 70 watt power supply and the 8200 uses a 90 watt supply. The connector is almost exactly the same (the 70 watt connector does not have a pretty colored stripe across the flat side, but the 90 watt one does). I use a 70 watt supply for my 8200 at home and the original shipped 90 watt supply at work.

The difference between the two (as far as I am concerned) is that when the 8200 is plugged into the 70 watt supply it runs at "battery" speed and when it powers up it tells you that the power supply is not the fully capable 90 watt supply and asks you if that is OK. This is no problem for me on a normal power up, but when resuming from a suspend, I don't think the keyboard or screen are alive quite yet (at least with the version of the BIOS I am running). So it becomes 4-second override time. I can live with it. If you can, then everything is OK, otherwise you will need to get a 90 watt supply.

Of course if the 8100 uses the 90 watt supply and the 70 watt one was for an even earlier model, forget all I have said -- it should work perfectly and probably has the same part number....

--Charles