Windows 7 - Can HP charger be used for Gateway laptop?

My roommate's large 17.3" Gateway NV9 laptop had its charger die (no power light) so he insists he can use my smaller 10-year-old HP 510's charger with no problems. I'm guessing his uses more power than mine so could burn out or otherwise mess up my charger. What do you think? The specs are hard to read on both.

I've made this laptop last 10 years, carried it all over the world, it's durable and runs 7 better than any new HP. I dont want to have to replace the charger or hurry it's long-expected death.

As long as the power specs match up and the physical plug fits in, you should be fine. HP seems to have changed their power chargers much more often than Dell does, so it wouldn't surprise me if it wouldn't work, or even physically fit.

Unfortunately, it fits. I'm telling him he needs to determine the specs first. You think it would be risky if he doesn't? Thanks.

This is just a little fact about Dell; all Dell power supplies have a small microchip inside them to let the laptop know that it's an official Dell charger. If you use a third party charger (i.e, one from Hong Kong on Ebay), the processor speed is halfed... permanently. There is absolutely no way to get your processor back up to full speed, even Dell support wont repair/replace it as it isn't faulty, it's intentional.

Anyway, I suggest that your friend should just spend a bit of money on buying a real HP charger and save him the trouble/worry of something going wrong.

Fortunately my other roommate's Dell chargers don't fit.

He's only here for 3 more days and hasn't the cash to buy a new one or the shipping time to wait for one off eBay.

The specs I find for replacement chargers for his Gateway show 19v, 4+ amps.

The specs I find for my laptop charger show 18.5v, 3.2 amps.

Is this enough to burn out my charger if he uses it?

Different ampage, different models, completely different power supply. Not a good idea.

Greg, you should be ok to use your charger , what you could do to protect yourself is to put a lower rated fuse (3amp) in the plug end

If the power is OK.
I would use to charge the Notebook battery only, when off.

greg just to be certain , make sure your room mates PSU is a 2wire plug and not the 3 wire monitoring type

That has to be one of the most ridiculous comments I've ever read online, and is absolutely untrue. I can say from my own personal experience that this is completely false....with their home and business lines.