Dell Inspirion 1545 battery not charging and problems withh adaptor

FloFlo

My daughter has a dell inspirion 1545 which has just turned 3 years old, it has only been used lightly. She was running off the battery recently and didn't notice it running out of charge so it ran down completely and just shut off. Since then the battery won't hold a charge at all and she has been running it from mains power but today there was a spark when plugging it in.

Does this mean the battery and mains adaptor are both needing replacement now?

Where is the best place to buy a replacement battery / adaptor from it seems very expensive direct from dell?

PPIslayer

Could try eBay.

[Deleted User]

I have had a Dell laptop in the past that refused to charge while in use, which was I was able to rectify by leaving off whilst connected to the mains for 2 or so hours.

FloFlo

anewhope wrote: »

I have had a Dell laptop in the past that refused to charge while in use, which was I was able to rectify by leaving off whilst connected to the mains for 2 or so hours.

Do you mean have battery in and turn off computer? It doesn't charge then either.

sickparrot

FloFlo wrote: »

today there was a spark when plugging it in.

So does it not work at all now? I've been running an inspiron 1525 for a couple of years now off the mains, the battery flaked ages ago.

Sparks aren't that unusual when plugging in high current supplies and dell power sockets are notoriously unreliable after a few years use, it may be a simple matter of getting a technician to re-solder the socket.

getmore4less

DC jacks have a habit of breaking inside.

I Just had to replace the DC jack on my 1300, easy to take apart but a pain to solder. dell have good guides on-line. Loads of info on the web.


Some dells have a extra signal conection on the jack and this can break stopping charging.

dell supoort for the 1545
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1545/en/SM/index.htm

looks like the power is a seperate board
http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1545/en/SM/powerbrd.htm#wp1179885

Just_Incredible

I have the same laptop which is also 3 years old. Like someone suggested leave the laptop on, but connected to the mains to charge.

If you have a multi-meter you could test the battery, DC jack and adaptor. This should give you an indication of what has failed.

Mista_C

I had the same model laptop arrive today experiencing the exact same symptoms. First thing I did was examine the DC socket and found the middle plastic piece was missing.

It should look like this...



... but instead the small round piece in the middle was missing exposing 4 metal strips contacts. On closer inspection I could see a small spring-type piece of metal protuding from the centre of the strips. This "spring" was shorting against one of the strip contacts. For a quick test I postioned a piece of electrical tape over the contacts to separate the spring and popped the charger in. The charger was recognised as 65W in setup (beforehand it was showing unknown) and the battery started to charge.

Long story short, new DC socket is needed. I've not cracked her open yet but from a quick supply check it appears you can purchase either the socket to solder or the USB board which requires slipping out a ribbon cable.

bazster

If the DC socket is OK (do check that first, they do break as suggested) it's worth unplugging the computer AND removing the battery. Dell laptops in my experience can get grumpy in various ways about the power supply, and completely removing ALL power sometimes sorts it out.

eBay is a good source of batteries and power supplies, but you need to make sure you get exactly the correct power supply for your model: many Dell power supplies look the same and have the same power specifications, but if it's not the correct one for the exact laptop model then it will power the computer but it will NOT charge the battery.

youmoney

Yes, directly from the businesses to buy, will be very expensive. However, purchased from the manufacturer, will be much better.My computer is broken, and the HP machine, here to buy batteries and adapters, this is the website: deal-battery.com
Good luck!

BillTrac

youmoney wrote: »

Yes, directly from the businesses to buy, will be very expensive. However, purchased from the manufacturer, will be much better.My computer is broken, and the HP machine, here to buy batteries and adapters, this is the website: deal-battery.com
Good luck!

I bought a replacement power adaptor for my Dell last week through Amazon. It's a Dell lead. Cost me £12 inc delivery against the Dell website cost of over £50:T