Computer help.

[Frenchie]

Hi, I have a Dell Inspiron and for some reason it's stopped charging the battery pack.When I click on the battery icon I get a message saying;X% available (plugged in not charging).Have tried a second battery with the same result.Everything else works fine.Anybody know what's wrong or the name of someone I could take it to.Thanks

[Hongkongfooi]

Have you tried dell themselves?

[Steve_PPP]

So its recognising the charger is plugged in, but its not charging? If so, thats an unusual one. Tried another charger?

If its not recognising the charger at all and its out of warranty with Dell then it may well be cheaper to get a new laptop than get it fixed. I know some of the Inspirons had a problem that if weight was put on the cable whilst it was plugged into the charging socket on the back of the laptop, it would effectively break the soldered contacts on the back of the socket (inside it). If that makes sense?

A lot of people used to sit with them on the sofa etc and the weight of the laptop on the cable shroud would be transferred through the solder joints in the socket.... hence they break, and no power gets from the charger to the battery pack.

[Frenchie]

Thanks Steve.How do I try another charger?Well out of warranty.

[Steve_PPP]

Originally Posted by Frenchie

How do I try another charger?

Find someone else with one

Most of the Dell chargers put out the same voltage/current and have done for a good few years. Just checked mine (from work's laptop new this year) and its 19.5v/3.34A.

[RobEvo5]

Might have a spare Dell charger at work, Will have a a look on Monday, if your not sorted before.

[Tomma]

Was the second battery charged when you put it in? I had a Dell laptop that would work fine plugged in to the mains but would not charge the battery or when i tried to run it on just the battery it would die straight away, I took it to a computer shop and it turned out the battery was knackered.

I was told this was because I always ran the laptop on the mains and never used just battery power, i was told you need to run it on battery power every now and then and change something in the settings so it only charged the battery up to 80% when it did charge the battery.

after this advise i was quoted over £100 for a genuine Dell battery which was probably more than what the sodding laptop was worth so I never got it sorted!

[Frenchie]

Thanks Rob.Hi Tomma,second battery was charged when put in.I ran it on Battery for a while to see if once plugged in to the mains it would charge up,it didn't. We often use laptop on Battery as we spend half our lives on the ferry back and forth to/from France.I noticed this morning that the battery indicator icon has disappeared from the bottom corner of the screen, does this mean anything?Thanks.

[thepieman]

What OS is the laptop running?

You could try this:
1) Disconnect AC
2) Shutdown
3) Remove battery
4) Connect AC
5) Startup
6) Under the Batteries category, right-click the Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery listing, and select Uninstall. Do this for each instance (I had 2 batteries installed, so 2 instances. Most users will only have 1).
7) Shutdown
8) Disconnect AC
9) Insert battery
10) Connect AC
11) Startup

But! I had the same problem with our Dell laptop, whilst still under waranty we had the Dell tech replace the battery, charger and the motherboard! the problem went away! for about 10minutes after the tech guy had left!!!

After searching on the web, I decided to re-install the OS (theres some suggestion that its a known 'bug' within numerous microsoft OS's) After doing a re-install of the OS, no problems at all

[Frenchie]

Thanks Ron,will give that a try.

[Frenchie]

Hi Ron, I cannot find the battery uninstall. Is it in Control Panel as the only battery information I can find is change the battery settings. Can you give me details on where the uninstall is. Thanks Frenchie

[Lazadude]

What version of windows are you on?

(press windows key and 'r' at the same time), type 'winver' (no quotes), and press enter.

[RobEvo5]

I do have a spare Dell charger if you wanted to give that a go could can have it, just PM us your addy and I'll post out free of charge.

Just buy us a pint or a bacon butty if I ever meet you at an event.

Cheers
Rob

[Frenchie]

Thats brilliant Rob, have pm'd you an address.Will bring a good bottle of red wine for you to the next meet.Thanks again,Terry.

[Frenchie]

Rob is a top man,posted me the charger and all working fine now.Thanks mate,have sent you pm.

[Steve_PPP]

Good result then

Unusual failure tho, Dell's chargers are normally the most reliable part on their laptops!