Laptop power question

Ettenna

My daughter's laptop won't recharge using the power adaptor. It runs fine until the battery runs out and will run fine with only a battery in. We have got an identical laptop that we swap the batteries around with. The charger works because it charges the second laptop with no problems. Anyone an ideas what could be the issue?

Maybe quite a simple solution but I don't know much about it

*Kat*

Must be the power jack on your laptop? If it's not the charger, or the battery then I would /guess/ that's the only other issue :S Does the laptop turn on with just the charger in, but the battery out?

eddddy

Is it a Dell laptop by any chance? If you google "dell battery not charging", you will find lots of discussion about this.

People suggest a number of different causes, including loose connections in the jack, inside the casing etc.

But another possible one is as follows (I had this problem with another make of laptop): The laptop checks a signal from the power adaptor to determine that it is a genuine Dell power adaptor. If no signal is detected, the laptop assumes it is a non-Dell adaptor and will run off the power supply, but it will not allow the battery to charge. (Are these the symptoms you are getting?)

I believe it's a chip on the motherboard that detects the power supply, so if you're lucky - it's the power supply that is failing to deliver the correct signal (so you need a new power supply), but if your unlucky - it's the chip on the motherboard which has failed (so you need a new motherboard).

Obviously, if the laptop is still under warranty you should contact the manufacturer. But in the case of Dell, they tell me that the power supply is not covered by their warranty (but the motherboard is).

But having said this, I'm not a very technical person, so maybe someone else will come along who can add more details!

Ettenna

Hi, thanks for the replies.

It is a HP laptop with its original charger. I have spoken to someone at college and they said it could be the jack thing on the laptop that has broken inside

Looks like I'll have to get someone to take it apart (it's well out of warranty).