Laptop not charging

FORESTBRI

HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!

My daughters laptop will not charge up, it works from the mains adaptor !!!

I have had to replace her internal harddrive and reinstall windows vista!!!
I searched online for problems and a lot of people have suggested flashing the BIOS!!! ( not really sure what this means )!!!
I downloaded the drivers from Dell ( Dell Inspiron 1525 laptop ) to do this, as it attempts to run/flash BIOS it stops staying battery needs to be at 10%, but as it wont charge i am snookered!!!
Any advice?????

Hammyman

Its got nothing to do with the charger, drivers or Windows or a failing hard drive.

If its running off the charger, then both the charger and the socket is OK. The only things left are either a fault in the charging circuit or a dodgy battery. When you have the charger connected, does the charging light show a red or amber?

FORESTBRI

it flashes between blue and amber??

( the hard drive failed hence the replacement )

patman99

The batteries in most modern laptops have a chip in them that stops the battery charging after 500 charges. It is designed to force the end user into paying a premium price for a new one. Unfortuanately, every time a laptop is tethered to the mains, the chip counts it as a full charge cycle even if it is only on the mains for a couple of minutes.

I remember having to get a special lead made-up to alow me to remove such a chip from an IBM in order to reset it.

Hammyman

FORESTBRI wrote: »

it flashes between blue and amber??

( the hard drive failed hence the replacement )

OTTOMH that indicates a faulty battery. When you start the laptop, press f2 (I think its that on that Dell) to go into Setup. Scroll down the list on the left until you get to Battery Information (I think - you'll work it out). It'll show both how much charge is in the battery plus if its performance is degraded due to age or it is faulty. If it is then pop onto Ebay to get a new one - they're around £35.

xoxo_2

Yes it means the battery is faulty.

I've had the same problem with my laptop (same make and model), and my HD also failed.

If it's still under warranty give dell a call and get them replaced.

tronator

patman99 wrote: »

The batteries in most modern laptops have a chip in them that stops the battery charging after 500 charges.

Never heard and seen a thing like this. Maybe you meant "some" instead of "most". I would consider my two year old Dell laptop modern and my battery still charges, even though it only has 30% capacity left. Do you have a link with more informations?

Hammyman

tronator wrote: »

Never heard and seen a thing like this. Maybe you meant "some" instead of "most". I would consider my two year old Dell laptop modern and my battery still charges, even though it only has 30% capacity left. Do you have a link with more informations?

No, he means most. Google will tell you all about it. I've got a pile of 5 year old Dells that'll tell you the battery status from the chip installed in it.

FORESTBRI

Hammyman wrote: »

OTTOMH that indicates a faulty battery. When you start the laptop, press f2 (I think its that on that Dell) to go into Setup. Scroll down the list on the left until you get to Battery Information (I think - you'll work it out). It'll show both how much charge is in the battery plus if its performance is degraded due to age or it is faulty. If it is then pop onto Ebay to get a new one - they're around £35.

I have checked battery health and it said , this battery is performing normally!
I then went into battery info and it said idle % charged!
Ac adaptor = unknown device installed