Bill McKee wrote:
"Smithers" Yes, Smithers is not my real name. wrote in message
. ..

For $80 to $100 you can buy adaptors specially designed for auto and
boats. If my Notebook was new, I would probably buy it. If it was 3 to 4
yrs old, I would assume the laptop is almost obsolete and say the money.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...refurbished=It
is interesting to note, you can now buy basic laptops for $500." JimH"
wrote in ...
"Smithers" Yes, Smithers is not my real name. wrote in
messagenews:OLOdnUCBorNaiTnenZ2dnUVZ_tGdnZ2d@com cast.com... Harry, Why
don't you just use the built in battery, and then recharge it whenyou get
home from your day of boating? "Harry Krause"
wrote in
... I just got in DeLorme's
new Street Atlas 2006 with the GPS puck for mylaptop, and I'm going to
order some inexpensive NAV software right after thefirst of the year. My
current laptop is a four year old IBM T23, which hasbeen more than
sufficient for my use while traveling. It has a 12V "cigarlighter"
adapter/inverter box, which I have used without incident on carsand boats.
I'm assuming this device is sufficent to "clean" that raw boatbattery
power so I don't fry the laptop. I haven't had any problems with 12Vpower
glitches so far, but I don't know if I'm walking on the wild
sidehere. Smithers, laptop batteries may give you 3 hours or so
of power. You wouldneed to plug it into a reliable power source when out
boating. Harry, I would think that you would be OK using the boat
battery if younever had problems using the car battery.


Just buy a $20 140 watt inverter and plug in the AC charger to the inverter.
Have used that for years with different laptops. No problems. Went this
way in about 1996 when it was $200+ for a 12 volt charger for the Dell
laptop.



Exactly. The notebook's battery charger will isolate any spikes and the
notebook's battery will compensate for any voltage drops.

Dan