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What’s the difference between 2-pin and 3-pin laptop power cords?

You may not have realised by some laptop chargers come with two pin cords and some come with three pin cords. This isn’t just a British thing, but the same thing is observed with both European and American laptop power cords.
Without wanting to get technical in our blog, the difference between the two is the inclusion of the ‘earth’ wire. Most manufacturers make their laptop chargers compatible with three pin cords – meaning that the earth wire is included. However some manufacturers, most notably Sony, have elected to make the majority of their laptop adapters without an earth – and therefore they are made with a 2 pin plug.
To fill customers in on a bit of the ‘lingo’. Two pin laptop power cords are sometimes to referred to as ‘figure-8 cords’ whilst their three pin counterparts are referred to as ‘mickey mouse cords’. As you might have guessed these cords are not cross-compatible. It is for that precise reason so as to avoid confusion and problems with cross-compatibility that Laptop Power UK dispatches all our laptop power cables with a complimentary (and correct) laptop power cord.

You may not have realised by some laptop chargers come with two pin cords and some come with three pin cords. This isn’t just a British thing, but the same thing is observed with both European and American laptop power cords.

Without wanting to get technical in our blog, the difference between the two is the inclusion of the ‘earth’ wire. Most manufacturers make their laptop chargers compatible with three pin cords – meaning that the earth wire is included. However some manufacturers, most notably Sony, have elected to make the majority of their laptop adapters without an earth – and therefore they are made with a 2 pin plug.

To fill customers in on a bit of the ‘lingo’. Two pin laptop power cords are sometimes to referred to as ‘figure-8 cords’ whilst their three pin counterparts are referred to as ‘mickey mouse cords’. As you might have guessed these cords are not cross-compatible. It is for that precise reason so as to avoid confusion and problems with cross-compatibility that Laptop Power UK dispatches all our laptop power cables with a complimentary (and correct) laptop power cord.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 7:34 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed.

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