need to change the whole wire? You can just easily buy a universal wall socket adaptor in your area. Then plug your british style socket into the adaptor and use the adaptor to connect to the wall I bring my laptop around the world for business trip and I just have one universal wall socket adaptor in hand.
Next week I'm moving to Japan, and hope to continue using my laptop there. The power cable is split into two pieces: one piece connects the laptop itself to the AC adapter, which accepts 100-240V, 50-60Hz, which should mean no problem with Japanese electricity. The other part is just a cable that connects the AC adapter to the wall socket. The one I'm currently using has a British wall socket plug, so obviously this will have to be replaced with one that has a Japanese plug. There are plenty of these available, but they all seem to be 2-pin. Now, when I say 2-pin I'm not referring to the wall socket side of things, but to the connection between this cable and the AC adapter. The vast majority of these adapters are indeed 2-pin (looks like an eight or infinity sign), but mine has three - kind of like the 2-pin one but with an extra hole arranged into a triangle formation. Do you think I'll be able to find a Japanese wall socket -> 3-pin AC adapter connector cable somewhere? I would imagine that such a thing should exist, although I guess that if this type of AC adapter doesn't exist in Japan then it might not. I've never tried taking a laptop abroad before so I'm a bit at sea... comments from anyone with experience would be greatly appreciated!

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