American laptops and Japanese AC power

[Crispy]

Can they inter-operate? How about vice-versa?

[sukebekuro]

Well, I can't speak to laptops specifically but I can say that I brought my desktop with me from America and it works fine, no transformer or anything. As well, I brought my TV (hey, I'm fucked okay) which is one of these big rear-projection suckers and I was almost sure I'd need to do something to get it to work properly on the different current, but it too works like a charm without need of transformers and the like.

[Crispy]

Thanks, that's one less thing to think about. Now, I wonder if my PS2/Dreamcast/etc will work...

[cstaylor]

It depends on where you're going.

Eastern Japan uses a different cycle rate than western Japan (I think it's 60Hz in Kansai, 50Hz in Kanto, but I could have it reversed). That's why Japanese equipment works well in the U.S.... it has built-in tolerance to cycle changes.

IANAE (I Am Not An Electrician), but this was told to me by someone who was more electrically-inclined.

[Crispy]

My DC is modded, my PS2 might soon be. I'm thinking I'll have a professional do it, I am frankly amazed every time I boot my DC up and it works, I figured my horrid soldering skills would have killed it.

There are different AC cycle rates in different parts of Japan? How do TVs in the area that works at 50hz conform to NTSC broadcasting standards? How the hell did it get that way?

[sukebekuro]

somewhat OT, but i'll throw it in anyway...regarding tv's, while my TV works fine on the electrical current, I can't see any channels on it unless I have it hooked up to a VCR and tune it via the VCR, something about the way channels are set up here.

also, regarding DVD, I bought a region-free Malata player in the states (well, actually i bought it via mail-order from Canada) before I moved here and brought it over with me, so that I can watch both my existing collection of Region 1 DVD's (about 150 of 'em), plus any new DVD's I may buy here (here being region 2). I'm glad I did too because after some checking around, region-free players appear to be mighty scarce here. I'm assuming any work, ahem, that you might do to your PS2 so it can play Japanese games would also enable it to play Reg. 2 dvd's.

[Harvey]

just to back stuff up, I brought my American laptop over to Japan when I was there, used it for a year on japanese power, and it still works fine.

The laptops do have a device on them that allows them to adjust to a variety of voltages.

One thing, if you buy a device with a rechargable battery, and no voltage converting thing (what are those called, transformers?), be careful when bringing it back to the states. (MD players, mp3 players, pda's whatever)

The voltage in the states is higher, and it can damage the rechargeable battery permanently if you plugged in over here.

Hrm. Yeah. My 2 cents.

[kamome]

I currently use an old Dell laptop I bought in the States in Japan and it works fine.

For higher end AV equipment, I would recommend a transformer as insurance against gradual deterioration in quality due to the different currents.