Please help!!

angelica135

I'm brand new to this forum so please be gentle! I am mildly frustrated with my Dell laptop which I purchased 2 years ago...actually mildly frustrated is too mild, I am very frustrated! It has basically stopped charging and Dell reckon its a problem with the motherboard which they want to charge me $500 to fix (I am currently in Canada) - this seems absolutely ridiculous to me as it seems to be a known problem on googling the symptoms. The power cable is working properly, it just doesn't seem to be getting through to the computer itself.

Now I am faced with the dilemma of getting the thing fixed or buying a new one - does anyone have any advice for me? If I'm going to be spending 500 bucks I think I'd rather be buying a brand new machine with a warranty. I would have thought it would be a question of replacing the jack in the computer itself. I am so upset right now, I know its only an inanimate object but I don't know what to do! Does anyone know of a good, but reasonably priced laptop (not Acer) that would do for now?

Just thought I'd give this a go...Thank you in advance :j

santer_2

If it is off, does it run if you remove the battery. If so, does it make any difference to the panel lights if the charger is plugged in or left out

When you say you are in Canada now, has it ever charged in Canada

Is there a big PC shop with laptops on display so you can ask to plug it in to one of their chargers, assuming they have one the same

cit_k

angelica135 wrote: »

I'm brand new to this forum so please be gentle! I am mildly frustrated with my Dell laptop which I purchased 2 years ago...actually mildly frustrated is too mild, I am very frustrated! It has basically stopped charging and Dell reckon its a problem with the motherboard which they want to charge me $500 to fix (I am currently in Canada) - this seems absolutely ridiculous to me as it seems to be a known problem on googling the symptoms. The power cable is working properly, it just doesn't seem to be getting through to the computer itself.

Now I am faced with the dilemma of getting the thing fixed or buying a new one - does anyone have any advice for me? If I'm going to be spending 500 bucks I think I'd rather be buying a brand new machine with a warranty. I would have thought it would be a question of replacing the jack in the computer itself. I am so upset right now, I know its only an inanimate object but I don't know what to do! Does anyone know of a good, but reasonably priced laptop (not Acer) that would do for now?

Just thought I'd give this a go...Thank you in advance :j

Whats the model number/range?

Whats the exact problem (any error messages on screen about incorrect charger type for example?).

Any damage to lead on charger?

Is the charger light on?

Is it a genuine dell charger, or a compatible one?

angelica135

Hi guys,

Thank you so much for responding.

The model is an Inspiron XPS M1330. No error message at all, the screen flickered the other day (the light gets brighter on the screen when its plugged in to charge) and then just stopped charging.

No damage at all to lead - tried another one from a friend and that didn't work either (both genuine Dell chargers, mine is the one that came directly with the laptop). No error message either.

Charger light is on, with both chargers.

It still doesn't work when I take the battery out.

It has worked in Canada for the last 3 and a half months.

Would go to a computer store but it doesn't seem to be the charger....

Any ideas?

Thanks! :beer:

santer_2

Common problem it seems, they tried a universal adapter here

http://getsatisfaction.com/dell/topics/dell_xps_m1330_battery_not_charging_on_ac_power

They mention inherent problems with charging, so maybe the sale of goods act or local equivalent, or the mention of it may get somewhere

http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-xps-studio-xps/280591-m1530-1330-ac-power-adapter-wattage-type-cannot-determined-error-thread.html

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=Inspiron+XPS+M1330+not+charging&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=Palemoon:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Bettie

angelica135 wrote: »

I would have thought it would be a question of replacing the jack in the computer itself. I am so upset right now, I know its only an inanimate object but I don't know what to do!

I feel for you, I was in the same boat a few years ago with an Inspiron 510 that was still under guarantee but Dell refused to mend it initially as they claimed it was customer damage. I bought a new charger and it was the same as the old one so I knew it wasnt the charger, they said I needed a new motherboard and the cost was more than the laptop cost. I was so upset but eventually after many weeks and a few tears they did repair it. Later, I was told by someone with computer mending knowledge I could have had a jack/port soldered on and that should work and would have been the cheaper option so it may be worth taking it to a computer shop and getting an estimate.

cit_k

If your not getting the message that your charger is not recognised/wrong type whatever, then it is likely that its the socket on the motherboard, or some other motherboard problem.

I second asking a local reputable computer shop to take a look to offer a quote to see if it is the power socket itself that needs soldering, and how much it would cost for them to do it.

It may not be just the socket though, in which case a new motherboard even on ebay is looking at around 100+ for just the board, and if you guess another 100 for fitting etc, thats getting closeish to dells 500 dollar quote.

edit to add: Am I misunderstanding, is the power supply now powering the computer/charging the battery, or is the computer running fine on the charger and its JUST not charging the battery?

If its running fine on the charger, and JUST not charging the battery, then it could be a bad battery, or a bad daughter board that charges the battery.

angelica135

Thank you so much for all your help. I've taken my laptop into a store - my friend knows the owner so I don't think they're going to rip me off!!

cit_k - unfortunately its not charging at all, either with or without the battery in the machine - he said it might just be the jack which would be cheaper to replace, but he said the computer itself is worth saving...would cost a lot to get the same thing with the same spec, so we'll see what they come back with when they quote.

santer - thanks for the link, have had a look through and it seems to be quite a common problem doesn't it! When I said this to Dell, they said it wasn't a known problem, but it seems it is!

Bettie - you poor thing! I know how that feels, especially as there are no stores to go into and speak to someone, when I initially got the laptop they delivered it to the billing address, not the shipping address, so I ended up having to take a 300 mile round trip to my parents house to pick it up! Breweries and organisation spring to mind .

Thanks for all your help folks, I'll keep you updated when I get a response back from the IT guy.

Cheers, :beer: