Laptop DC power - earthed

To stop you getting an unexpected tingle if you happened to place your laptop on your bare lap.

Class I vs Class II. One relies on earthing to meet safety requirements, the other relies on a higher level of insulation plus a few other minor features.

If you must use the earthed power block in an unearthed socket, you should wear rubber boots, big rubber kneecaps, a large foam helmet, and paint your face with carbon-free insulating paint. And do send us a pic showing how to do it :)

NT

It is quite possible that the laptop has been earthed to reduce electrical fields which some research has suggested are bad for your health.

Nah, it increases the electric field for the wireless function ...

It enables the PSU to be made smaller, lighter, and cheaper.

Can you use its PSU?

No.

Some vendors make both Class I and Class II (double insulated) PSUs. The default suppled various with country, but you should be able to order the Class II (double insulated, unearthed) one. I have Toshiba PSUs of both types. Back when the Toshiba M100 was a current laptop, you could order it with 2 PSUs, and you got one of each type for this reason (although mostly it pissed people off because they used different mains cordsets).

The original PSU gave 2.4a ,at 19v, Due to a cable fault, I had to replace the plug that goes into the laptop. I also now longer have the suppression coil.

The new PSU is rated at 3.34a & 19.5v and uses a different laptop plug. The cable and plug are both a bit more substantial than the original, so hopefully they will last better. The new laptop has an i5 quad processor, so it probably does need more power.

This is Dell equipment. The new PSU is a little smaller

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Adrian C saying something like:

Maybe for the Orgone Accumulator and Homeopathic charger.