AC adapter question

OK, nothing to do wtih security... Thought i would ask here though.

I have a linksys WRT54G. I gave it to a friend and I think I grabbed the wrong AC adapter. The one I grabbed has a output rating of 9VAC 400mA and after I did a little googling around. I see that the adapter required is 12V DC 1.0A....

Well, needless to say, after about a minute it stopped working. After checking all the connections I noticed the Power adapter was pretty hot. So, did I burn out the WRT54G or the power adapter or both ? I pray that only the adapter got messed up, but I fear that the AC might have cooked the DC circuits. I mean, it worked for a couple minutes. So did I just screw myself out of $60 ?

Hi, dmorgan ,

You will probably be lucky. As a general rule you burn out an adapter/transformer if it is underpowered. To damage the router you would need an adapter that was of a higher rating than the device it drives.

You may even be double lucky and the adapter has a thermal cutout, but I think that is a bit much to hope for. Check if it has a fuse, that should go first..............but most of them are sealed units so don't try to open it up.............just look for a little trapdoor.

:)

EDIT: I have moved the thread to "Hardware" as that is what it is about ;)

The AC Adapter, aka Power Brick. Those things take a lot of abuse since their construction is so simple - basically an iron bar with wire wrapped around it.


That said they can die if they are asked for more current than they can provide. Unfortunately in your case the router likely drew a 0.75A current from the Power Brick that was rated to provide 0.4A. (At least if I got OHMs Law correct...) So the brick may be toast...


I think the router ought to be fine though, but I honestly don't know for sure...it depends on how the voltage fluctuated as the brick died. Plug it into the correct brick and see. Cheers.

What I don't understand is how the router worked at all on AC
if it requires DC. Maybe it has a rectifier built in for safety. Oh well, the
only thing you can do is try the correct adapter and hope for the best.
:cool:

I think there's a safekeep in the router..
Saves a lot of people swiching + and - on their power (wrong Adapter) :)
thus saves in helpdesk calls for a cheap rectifier

I would of thought that once he/she plugged it in and turned it on then because of the wrong adapter being in place the safety switch in the house's fuse box should of being activated.

Other then that i would most likely think that the adapter would be screwed, but try using the correct adapter and see if the Router still got some kick left in it.. ;)
And if it don't then it's off to the local computer store to shell out for a new one..

f2b

Hrm...I didn't catch that the output on the wrong powerbrick was AC. Are you sure you didn't get that mixed up with the input of 120VAC? I was assuming a DC output on that thing...

Either way can you update us on if the router is dead or not?