G74S power supply

[greeblesnort]

I bought my G74S late last year and have been extremely happy with it as a portable gaming machine(except for the stupid touchpad). My one real concern with it is the power supply(i.e., the brick). I move the machine fairly frequently and have noticed that, very often, the power supply is much hotter than I feel is "normal". I don't have a good method for actually measuring surface temp on it, but it's pretty common for it to be at the high end of what I feel comfortable touching, so my educated guesstimate would be in the 120+ degree range.

Is this normal? Do I even need to be worried about this?

I've considered getting another power supply just to have one spare as I'd be at something of a loss if this one went tango uniform on me, but can't seem to find a link to an "official" replacement. Would something like this work: http://www.onsalebattery.com/asus-g74s-power-supply-charger-ac-adapter-19v-79a-p-152602.html

Asus G74S, upgraded to 16GB, upgraded the 640GB HDD with a 240GB OCZ SSD.

[MrRuckus]

I had a G53 before the G74 and a G60 before that. All 3 have had hot power supplies. I would say its normal. You have almost a desktop power supply crammed into a small space with no fan. With the graphics cards we have, they do get hot. people have stated that possibly the laptops draw too much power for the 150watt units and think that that could be the cause for the overly hot power supplies. One person had a suggestion of possibly picking up a 180watt power supply just so the laptop has a little headroom, but those are hard to find. I know Targas makes such a power supply but again it is hard to find.

I'm not sure that power supply would work. It looks like on that female connector, the whole may not be big enough on the one you posted. If you compare your current to that one, it looks too small to me, but I could be wrong.

[fostert]

If you simply add up the published max TDP ratings for each part in the G74 (CPU, GPU, chipset wlan, screen, HDDs, fans, etc) you get a few watts shy of 150W, and thats not even counting the motherboard electronics (VRMs, RAM, etc, likely another 35W or so)! This is why it is not recommended to be charging your battery while gaming: the adaptor power supply simply is not rated for that much draw! ASUS cut it really fine by delivering the G74 with a 150W supply.
ASUS markets other adaptors at 180W and a 230W brick with the right voltages (see http://us.estore.asus.com/index.php?l=product_detail&p=4617 for eg)
that would be more efficient, deliver cleaner power (less ripple) at 150W and operate cooler, but the downside is they are bigger and less portable. But for a parked G74 they would be perfect: I myself am considering the 230W unit for my office desk.