are laptop battery chargers interchangeable

[iloveglee]

I have an acer netbook, and an acer aspire laptop. The battery chargers fit both of these computers but am unsure as to whether they are truly interchangeable and whether using the wrong one can cause damage. The reason for the question is that the laptop appears to have some problem with the battery power management and I have to take it into the store where I bought it for them to see what is wrong. The telephone tech support said it sounded like the battery charger but the shop tell me they have to send the laptop away. I am not able to get into the store for a few days and wonder if it would be damaging to the laptop to try the battery charger from the netbook to see if that works. If it does, then it would clearly suggest that it is the battery charger at fault, thus I cannot see why they would have to send it elsewhere.

[kgmrush]

You can use the other charger if the voltages are the same (on the back of the laptop there will be a label) usually 18v,19v, 20v etc. As long as the label on the charger says the same it will be okay. Replacement chargers are quite cheap these days on ebay/amazon if you need one. If it still has the same problem with a different charger, you might need a new battery (about £40), or could be a problem with the power jack.

[iloveglee]

its a very strange problem actually - the screen keeps going dark - as though it was on battery power but it is actually plugged in. It goes dark intermittently and randomly no relationship to the power plan and comes back very quickly. It was also intermittently not charging but is charging currently. It's altogether puzzling as it will go for hours in use and the screen won't go dark, then it keeps going dark for a while, then stops. All the wiring in the charger appears OK to me.

[kgmrush]

Sounds like it's the jack, you may need to get a new one soldered to the motherboard - take it to a local no fix no fee computer repair shop, they should be able to diagnose for you.

[iloveglee]

this problem is so intermittent I may have to run the laptop on battery until the battery life is gone before it happens again, then again it could happen several times in the next minute or two. I can't work out whether these two chargers are the same, the laptop one is input 100-240v, output 19v - 3.42A, the netbook one is the same except the last figure is 1.5A - I think the writing is so small it's almost impossible to read. The laptop is still under guarantee so there would not be a problem getting it fixed, it's just that they want to send it away and goodness knows how long i will be without it.