dazzabazza

Rasb,

I don't have any help but I sympathise with you. I have exactly the same problem with my Dell Inspiron 5150.

It started 2 days ago(20 Aug 08). All of a sudden the battery wouldn't charge. I didn't realise until I restarted and I had the same message - "The AC Power Adapter type cannot be determined. This will prevent optimal performance."

The battery then eventually ran empty.

I tried jiggling the connector and tested the adapter with a multimeter. The voltage of the adapter is fine(19.6v).

I pulled the laptop apart to see if there were any dry soldered joints around the adapter socket. No luck.

I ran the multimeter over a few items around and close to the battery terminals and found plenty of spots that were getting full voltage, 19.6v. I don't know what they were so was just prodding, hoping I stumbled across an obvious problem.

I gave up in the end and took it to some local tech guys to look at.

Fingers crossed. I will let you know if I have any success.

Have you had any luck?

Dazzabazza