I've been having a problem with my Inspiron 5150 not charging when connected to an outlet. At first, the charging light on the front would flicker every now and then, but I thought nothing of it. About two weeks ago, however, it began to not work at all when connected to the outlet, but would work after a little bit of pushing and slight moving. Since that stage, it degenerated to where it will not charge at all. I have tried the normal tricks of removing the battery, and holding the power button down, however I have not had any success. When I push the power button, the power LED and battery LED flash momentarily but nothing else happens. The computer will not start regardless of whether the battery is in the unit, and it had almost no charge when I last had the computer on, not enough to restart it. I have used a voltmeter to check the power supply, and it is putting out the required voltage, and the battery was holding its charge when the system was still working. I read the other long thread about random shutdowns and power cut outs, however mine seems to be slightly different, as I have only had problems with the power, and had no random crashes. When I went through Dell Support's online troubleshoot, it came to a "reed switch" failure, and I emailed Dell, but have yet to hear a response. It is way past warranty, so I don't really expect much in the way of help. Has anybody else had a similar problem?

yea i think i have a similar problem. my laptop used to hold a decent charge ~2 hrs and then suddenly it went to s**t and says i have 30 minutes adn that is at 90% capacity. ive had it for 1.5 yrs and expect a decrease but not so sudden. the battery led flashes green and hten yellow 3 times both while charging adn on its own power. let me know what you do.i will blow sum air into the fan and see if that helps

I had that problem with my Inspiron 5100, I found the problem to be with the charger, at this point:
http://img150.imageshack.us/img150/2636/b91b1co.jpg

If I wiggled it around a bit, it would connect and start charging. I need to solder a new connection, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

I have exactly the same problem..
A Dell engineer said it was the Motherboard, tried that, no joy
Someone else said the Switch, Tried that, NO Joy

The charger says it is charging but !!!

The Power & Battery LED flash about every 5 seconds but nothing else..

Have taken all the bolt ons off and still NO JOY !!!

HELP!!! did you get any suggestions??

The problem is one of 3 things with the 1100, 1150, 5100, 5150 they have the motherboards go bad if its just not charging then its the ac adapter. I will also tell you that if its shutting down for no reason, its a cooling issue. Call dell, and you have a one year extra warrenty and is covered but it will be a depot send in, so a few weeks to fix. Either way call Dell and get a new adapter. The lawsuit took care of most of the problems for you.

Adil Khan said:

Adil the battery on the notebook is bad. You will have to replace it.

I am a customer advocate here at Dell headquarters in Texas. I found your post and wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help out.

Jason: for the power problems, it sounds to me like the charger board is the problem. The only solution is, unfortunately, to have the motherboard replaced. You can get a depot repair set up by calling tech support, or if you don't wish to call them you can email me and I will be happy to set that up for you.

Adil: What you describe sounds like it is the battery, but there is a chance it could be the motherboard. The easiest way to check that is to try the computer with a known good battery to see what happens. Notebook batteries normally are rated for 400 cycles of use, which is approximately one year of "normal" use. If it is outside that one year, and the battery is the problem, then purchasing a replacement is the only option. With the information off the sticker on your battery I can check to see if it is still inside its one year warranty.

If anyone is having power problems on a notebook, the best steps to isolate where the problem lies are:

* Plug in the AC adapter to the wall, but not the computer, and check to see if the LED is on solid (it should be)
* Plug it into the computer with the battery out and test it
* Plug it into the computer with the battery IN and test it
* Run the system on battery only, with AC disconnected

If the LED on the AC adapter is not on solid while unplugged from the computer, or if it goes out when you plug it into the computer, the AC adatper may have a problem. If it goes out when you plug it into the computer, it might also be the motherboard (charger). If the computer works fine unless the battery is in, its (obviously) the battery. And if the computer has problems regardless of AC adapter or battery, its almost sure to be the motherboard.

If any of you wanted to email me, I can be reached at customer_advocate@dell.com (with 'ATTN: Larry' added to the subject to ensure it gets to me).

Larry
Dell Customer Advocate

Jason,

I was wondering if you ever had your problem resolved re the ac adapter on your dell. I read the replys to your posting and none of them resolved or addressed your exact problem. I have the exact problem you had and I dont know if I have to replace the connect, or solder or replace the ac adapter. If ytou could please let me know.

Thank you.
Bryan Sampson

I have the same problem with my 5150 sometimes wiggling the connector makes it start charging. Sometimes it will charge for 5 min some times 50 min. It's totally random. I worked with Dell Tech support. They even looked at the computer remotely. The tech ditermined the motherboard was bad. Funny thing was I had the motherboard replaced 3 months before this for the same problem. Now it's not under warrenty anymore. So i bought an external battery charger and a second battery. I hibernate the computer swap with the fully charged battery and then fire it up and continue where I left off and charge the drained battery. $175 is cheeper then paying for Dell to swap the montherboard again to have it fail in 3 months.

I have the exact same problem. Can you tell me what you ended up doing?

I have found out that the problem is the dc jack where charger is plugged in.I had it replaced but still would not turn on. Attempted to work it out with Dell as my unit was out of warranty to no avail. I ask Dell to provide some help as far as payment for parts due to the class action against Dell for this particular model . I received no help so after buying five Dells over the years I have since gone to Toshiba and purchased two laptops.

Good luck
Brtya

It's a common problem - a notebook not charging because the system board is damaged..
If you move the computer about with the power lead plugged in it is VERY easy to knock it. Then you damage the connection to the system board. Then the battery will not charge and neither can you run the computer off the mains. If you havn't damaged it much then wiggling the power jack around can sometimes start it re-charging again but its the beginning of the end, and a system board replacement is the solution.
To re-solder the power connection again is fraught as you have to completely disassemble the notebook to get at it for soldering. Also you probably need to use araldite to mend the broken circuit board. If you are not experienced in electronics then probably you shouldn't attempt this yourself.
The advice that the Dell person gave is sound advice and applies not only to Dell notebooks but to all notebooks.
My advice to owners of notebooks is not to move them at all unless the power jack is removed. And don't put them into your computer bag without removing the power jack too.

Howdy! I just had a similar thing happen to my 5150. I have taken many steps to fix it, to no avail.

The Symptoms
1. Does not charge battery or run under AC power. (works fine from battery alone)

With a battery inserted the "on/off" and "battery" LEDs on the front will briefly flash green when I plug in AC power.

With no battery inserted the same LEDs briefly flash green when the AC is plugged in then flash once briefly about every 5 to 7 seconds until i disconnect the power cord or reinsert the battery.

Solutions That I Have Tried

1. Resoldering Power Jack - No difference, I even soldered wires to the underside of the motherboard and connected them directly to the correct parts of the plug to make sure.

2. Check LVC14A chip - not loose or in need of soldering. My 5150 works fine with the battery no matter how much I press on the top. I removed the tabs from the "C" cover anyway but most people for whom this has worked had a "crashing when moving laptop" type problem.

3. Unplugging the touchpad / palmrest from the motherboard and booting to bios shows that the battery is still not charging. Some people seem to have problems with the reed switch which is connected via that plug.

This all leads me to believe that it is some other power issue on the motherboard, I was hoping that somebody out there would have possibly had the same problem and fixed it somehow.

My options now seem to be to be...
1. Buy an external battery charger of some sort... this would not be ideal as I leave my computer running for hours at a stretch when it is on my desk.
2. Figure out the battery output voltages and solder up a jack directly to the battery connection and buy the correct voltage adapter.
3. Whine and cry to Dell and see if they will replace the motherboard for me, it seems a bit late for this option though.

Thanks for any help!!!

I'm having a slightly problem with my Latitude C840. It runs fine on the AC adapter but the battery will not charge. I thought the battery might be the problem so I bought a new oem Dell battery and still have the same problem. I charged the new battery in my buddies laptop (he has a C600) and it charged fine in his. When it's under battery power only is starts discharging normally and when you plug the AC adapter in the screen brightens up normally. Under battery properties it shows that it's not charging. I tried swapping the bay that's the battery is in and it's the same. I noticed that some people on eBay are selling a DC Power Board Card for my laptop (one is item # 230278885406). Is this what is bad on mine or is it a bad motherboard?

Link on the power board:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Dell-Inspiron-8000-DC-Power-Board-Card-C84....m14.l1318