Dell Laptop Help

sarge123

Hi,

My Dell laptop has decided to throw a wobbly. It is a XPS15 and is only 15 months old (3 months out of warranty!).

When i powered on today it reported that the battery life was low. Fine i thought it hadn't been used for a few weeks.

I ensured the power pack was in - it was, but the LED indicator around the band of the lead was very dim. When i unplugged the lead, the LED band is back to normal brightness.

With the laptop powered on, it does not see the AC adaptor and runs on battery (down to 7% and falling).

I shut the system down and just let it charge the battery for a while. When i do that, the power pack seems to trip out and different times (the LED band goes out) and i need to trun the power pack off and back on. It then happens again after a while. Whilst the power pack is on, the battery charging indicator on the laptop flashes between either white(charging), amber(on battery) or nothing at all.

Ok i thought, i will shut it down and remove the battery and just use it via the AC powerpack. It failed to power on.

I am thinking it may be either the battery or the power supply (worst case could even be the internal PEC but it has not been mishandled in anyway).

The battery has a test button on it. When this is pressed i just get the first LED (out of 5) for a short while.

Before i call the overly expensive support centre, does anyone have any idea?

Many thanks

Sarge

robmar0se

Have you tried putting a multimeter across the adapter output to measure the current?

Figment

This behaviour is often the cause of a dying battery.

flashg67

Figment wrote: »

This behaviour is often the cause of a dying battery.

Even with the battery removed as the OP has said, it still doesn't power on - I'll defer to better qualified experts, but does that not indicate a duff power supply? The battery may also be dead too, from the sound of the test button result?

If the OP can blag a donor battery or PSU that might help confirm

tonyh66

its the power supply, you have proved that by running on the battery and the computer not 'seeing it' also it is not charging the battery. get a replacement for £10-15 on ebay

robmar0se

tonyh66 wrote: »

its the power supply, you have proved that by running on the battery and the computer not 'seeing it' also it is not charging the battery. get a replacement for £10-15 on ebay

I agree. The way the LED band reacts to being inserted and when out, I believe confirms it. When not inserted the draw from the adapter is miniscule, so the LED is bright; as soon as you insert into the lappie, the draw increases so the LED dims. In other words the output from the adapter is insufficent to power your lappie; a multimeter would probably prove it.

sarge123

I got the multimeter out from the garage and the results do seem to confirm what you guys are thinking and what i thought.

0.286 v DC (should be 19.5)
0 A (should be 4.62A)

Suppose the question now is genuine one or not...

robmar0se

Genuine @ £20 with 1 yr warranty from an ebay seller with 100% record on over 20k items? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-PA3E-Adapter-Dell-XPS-15-Charger-90W-Psu-/320872717653?pt=UK_Computing_LaptopAccessories_PowerSupplies&hash=item4ab5811d55