Car computer power source

I''ve never done it, but I''ve seen others who have. The bottom line about power is that your 12V electrical system isn''t really 12 volts, it can spike up to 15 and as low as 8. This means absolutely not piping your battery straight into the 12V input on a hard drive.

You can get 12V DC-DC converters made specially for situations like yours, and they are somewhat more efficient than inverters, but also more expensive.

Inverters are cheap, spend about $30-50 US to get a decent size/quality (plus surge protectors, important) and you can plug all your electronics into one. It should also clean the power up a bit so you don''t have to worry too much about that.

There''s a registry entry somewhere where it''s like "shell=explorer.exe", just replace that entry with "shell=yourprogram.exe"

Thanks, I already have an inverter, so I guess i''ll just use it since I''ll also have to power a gamecube and a 7 inch screen.


Any info on the boot up. Some new computers come setup so that it says the manufacture instead of the post.

I was also curious about this. What if i have a 350W power inverter, then the surge protector then my 500W PSU? Will is all work together and not blow up/burn out? And how long do you think the car battery would last (assuming its brand new).

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Could Jesus microwave a burrito so hot that he himself could not eat it?

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Original post by lethalhamster
I was also curious about this. What if i have a 350W power inverter, then the surge protector then my 500W PSU? Will is all work together and not blow up/burn out? And how long do you think the car battery would last (assuming its brand new).

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Could Jesus microwave a burrito so hot that he himself could not eat it?

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AFAIK, if your computer/monitor required more electricity than your inverter could supply you could blow a fuse, or burn up the inverter. Just because your computers psu is rated for 500watts does not mean that your computer is using 500 watts, your computer might be only using 300watts out of the 500watt max. You would need to measure how many watts your computer and monitor is consuming to be sure you dont oveload the inverter.

The lenght of time you could run your computer and monitor on a 12v battery would depend upon how much power it is consuming. Another factor would be if the cars engines is running while you use your computer. It would also depend upon if your altenator could produce enough electricity to compensate for the cars electrical system and your computer system. If you car is not running, I would guess you could power you computer system 15 minutes before the battery could completely drain. My assumption is based upon a UPS which uses a 12 volt battery to supply power to a computer during a power outage.

I use a laptop in my car with a power adapter in the fag socket... cost about £4.50

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Original post by wilhil
I use a laptop in my car with a power adapter in the fag socket... cost about £4.50

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I know someone that does that. Thats probly what i would do... If I had a laptop... and a car... I have a bike and a pocket PC though! OMG!! IM GOING TO GO WAR BIKING!! YAY!!!! First I need $100 for a 802.11b wireless SDIO card.

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Could Jesus microwave a burrito so hot that he himself could not eat it?

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Original post by wilhil
fag socket...

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hur hur took me a few seconds to figure that one out