Laptop went dead!

stuzhunter

I wonder If I may ask the experts a bit of advice regarding my laptop at home.

Basically I was using my laptop last night and then all of a sudden everything went dead. I tried to re-start and re-boot the laptop but nothing happened. I then disconnected everything including power and the laptop is now working fine on battery. However each time I connect the power to my laptop, the laptop goes dead. Do you think it’s something to do with my adaptor? When I plugged my adaptor into the mains, the ‘switch on’ light on the adaptor is indeed switch on. So it appears that power is coming to the adaptor but could the adaptor be faulty? I don’t understand why it would cause the laptop to switch off/go dead?

aarrgghh

As you did before, switch off and disconnected the power supply, then remove the laptop battery pack and leave for at least 30 seconds before refitting the battery, plug in the power, switch on and start up.

stuzhunter

cheers I have tried this and even tried different sockets but it is still the same..I am thinking of buying a new adaptor

abisum

I don't recommend buying a new adaptor especially when it is not certain that the adaptor is faulty. I suggest having someone open your laptop and check on where the power is connected inside the laptop to check whether the fault is there.

Hammyman

Is it the original manufacturers charger or one of those horrific £7 things off Ebay?

stuzhunter

Hi the laptop is a Dell 1300 inspiron and the adaptor is the original Dell adaptor PA-16 family Model PA-1600-06D2.

last night I removed the battery completely and tried to power the laptop using the adaptor. The laptop takes power (its switches on) but the screen is very dark..I can just manage to see the Icons on the screen. That tells me there is a problem with the adaptor? What do you think?

I know that both the laptop and battery are working fine and from the above, I know that power can get into the computer?

macman

Buy/borrow a £10 multimeter and check the DC output from the adaptor. That will tell you definitively if it is outputting the correct voltage or not.

stuzhunter

Update:

I can also charge the laptop battery using the adaptor. That tells me that the adaptor is also fine. The laptop works perfectly fine on battery. That tells me all the main components are working fine.

However, the computer will not work using the adaptor alone and if the computer is running on battery and I plug the adaptor everything goes ‘dead’.

I think there may be a problem with the component responsible to override the battery.

macman

What happens if you remove the battery and then boot up using the mains adaptor?
It may still be that the voltage the adaptor is outputting may not be correct or stable, which is why I suggested that you check it with a multimeter.

stuzhunter

Macman, I removed the battery and then tried to boot up using the mains adaptor only..the screen started to load and then the screen went all dark but I could still see the Icons in the background.

Each time I shut the laptop screen and open it , the screen starts to load for about 5-10 seconds and then goes all dark...

Do you still think it is related to the voltage?

Hammyman

Did it go dark as in completely dark or just dimmer? Is the charger the original one that came with the laptop or a replacement one, even if its got Dell on it?