Breaker got tripped when switching on laptop charger

Solution 1:

Get rid of it at once.

Standard amp draw for a circuit breaker is 20A or more (check your breakers for the exact number, it is printed on). Your power supply should not be drawing anywhere near this much.

That much current probably means it failed to a short circuit. 120V * 20A[lower limit of current draw] = 2400 watts. That's a minimum of 2.4x what a typical microwave puts out. Your charger will get hot enough to start a fire.

EDIT:

Mark in his answer makes the point that it might be a combination of devices operating normally which together exceed the load on the circuit. While this is a valid point, most chargers will draw < 2A. That means that the circuit must, in its normal operation, draw very close to the maximum current draw permissible. More than likely, if this were the case, the OP would have a history of breaker trips on this circuit with startup power surges. Also, the OP tested on multiple sockets, which may (OP clarification wanted) mean that the OP tested on multiple circuits.

Easy test: plug in another appliance with similar current draw in one of the same plugs. If it doesn't trip, then it's not the cumulative current draw.

Conclusion:

Yes, there are possibilities other than a failure to short, if you fancy experimenting to see if the charger OK. However, laptop chargers cost $30 (approx). Electrical fires and hospital bills cost a lot more.

Solution 2:

More than likely. If the charger is consistently causing the breaker switch to trip, then it is probably fried. Dispose of it and purchase a replacement.

Solution 3:

A gaming size laptop might have a 45Watt supply which might be able to briefly generate 200Watts of power demand at startup. That's enough to overload a magnetic circuit breaker if you have 2200 watts of demand from other devices on the circuit like say an air-conditioner and a microwave oven. I wouldn't connect it to the computer side again without seeing if you can make the power supply blow the circuit again with no load. If not you might want to build a test lamp out of a lamp socket and a 200watt 120VAC floodlamp. Then comes the hard part of measuring the power supply output with an inexpensive DVM meter - a large computer might require from 17 to 19Volts DC. If that matches what it says on the power supply label you probably can safely plug it back in to the computer, try it and declare the event a glitch. If everything works. Amazon has a lot of New replacement OEM power supplies if need be.

Solution 4:

Is it tripping the circuit-breaker, or is it tripping the Residual Current Device (RCD)? the latter typically has a TEST button and a rating in mA. More likely there's a small earth fault with your charger/lead.

Solution 5:

One more possibility: Does your laptop charger have a Linetek LS-15 cable attached to it?

If the cord was made between mid-2010 and mid-2012, chances are good it's affected by a recall, which was due to a defect causing a possible internal short in the cable and a fire hazard. This, too can cause the adapter to trip the circuit breaker.

If your AC adapter's power cable is affected, contact your system's manufacturer to get a replacement.