Patent ID: 8065539

Claim:
An information handling system comprising: a housing; plural electronic components disposed in the housing that cooperate to process information; a power subsystem disposed in the housing and operable to provide power to the electrical components; a power adapter separate from the housing and operable to convert power from alternating current to direct current and to provide the direct current power to the power subsystem through an external power cable; a power manager associated with the power subsystem and operable to communicate identification information to the power adapter through the external power cable; a power cable coupled to the power adapter and operable to couple to a provide power to a first power subsystem associated with a first power level and a second power subsystem associated with a second power level; an over current protection circuit associated with the power adapter and operable to limit power output from the power adapter to a high power level or a low power level; and an adapter manager interfaced with the power manager and the over current protection circuit, the adapter manager operable to set the over current protection circuit at the low power level if no identification information is provided by the power manager and to receive the identification information from the power manager and to apply the identification information to set the over current protection circuit to a selected of either the high power level or the low power level.