Problem - laptop does not recognise adaptor ?

wilburpig

oops_a_daisy wrote: »

Hi there - I will have to be quick before my battery runs out
Please can somebody advise me on what might be the problem with my laptop. For the last few months there has been a intermittent problem with the computer not recognising the battery. A warning comes up which reads

'the AC power adaptor can not be determined. Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge. Please connect a Dell 130W adaptor or higher for best system operation'

The laptop is just over 2 years old and I am still using the adaptor that came with it which is a Dell 130W adaptor. I have contacted Dell support but it is out of warranty so they are going to get one of their engineers to phone me to give me a quote for a new motherboard ( havent got a clue what a motherboard is but it sounds expensive )

I have also had it looked at by a local computer shop and they couldnt find the problem as it was not happening when they had the computer ( intermittent ) so they just gave the fan a clean and returned it.

Has anybody else come across this problem and can you give me any advice.

many thanks OOPS

PS if this is a big problem I have seen an advert for PC World for a Toshiba laptop for £399 including a free printer - is this a good price the details are 512MB Memory, 80GB Hard drive, Pentium Dual Core, Windows Vista, 15' TFT screen, DVD, 56k modem wireless. We dont use the home computer for games so the disk space should be ok but just wondered if the price was good. I also still have the disc for Microsoft Works from when I got the Dell so would be able to use that.

Thanks for reading

Hi,
I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 about 18 months old, and this is exactly the problem I was having 3 weeks ago. Eventally the battery died and I was stuffed. It was covered under an on site warranty and with a lot of to-ing and fro-ing on Dell's helpline they first sent me a new power lead, which had no effect, then an engineer with a new motherboard, which fixxed it completely. I sympathise!!
I'm glad it was covered by the warranty, I would never have afforded to have it fixed at the price you've quoted - good luck getting it sorted. Maybe mentioning to Dell that you know of someone else with the same problem might make them a bit more helpful.