Dell Inspiron 5150 Killer power adapter

Rasb · 06-24-2008, 10:13 AM

I have 2 Dell 5150s. One I use and the other the boss gave his teenage daughter. He brought in the other laptop today saying it wouldn't charge. Instantly you can see physical abuse on the laptop and the power input is busted really bad so the outlet just falls out.

I decided to try the power adapter on my laptop to see if that was still ok. I plug it into my laptop and no charge but the green light was still showing on the adapter. I pulled out the power and replaced it with mine and nothing. Now I have 2 laptops that won't charge. I cleaned out the plug and still nothing.

When I restart the laptop I get a warning that I'm not plugged into AC so my laptop won't run fully optimized. I've used my laptop without AC before and never had this pop up.

Has anyone come across this and now a fix? I have 90% power in the battery which I'm going to use to make sure my backup is up to date.

Any help is appreciate!

Rasb

dazzabazza · 08-22-2008, 02:03 AM

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

Rasb · 08-22-2008, 07:06 AM

I had no luck with discovering the problem. In the end I removed the hard drives and sold the laptops on ebay and used the money to get me a new system. I wish you the best of luck with finding the answer.

Rasb

06-24-2008, 10:13 AM	#1 (permalink)
Rasb Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 67 OS: XP	Dell Inspiron 5150 Killer power adapter I have 2 Dell 5150s. One I use and the other the boss gave his teenage daughter. He brought in the other laptop today saying it wouldn't charge. Instantly you can see physical abuse on the laptop and the power input is busted really bad so the outlet just falls out. I decided to try the power adapter on my laptop to see if that was still ok. I plug it into my laptop and no charge but the green light was still showing on the adapter. I pulled out the power and replaced it with mine and nothing. Now I have 2 laptops that won't charge. I cleaned out the plug and still nothing. When I restart the laptop I get a warning that I'm not plugged into AC so my laptop won't run fully optimized. I've used my laptop without AC before and never had this pop up. Has anyone come across this and now a fix? I have 90% power in the battery which I'm going to use to make sure my backup is up to date. Any help is appreciate! Rasb

08-22-2008, 02:03 AM	#2 (permalink)
dazzabazza Registered User Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 1 OS: XP	Re: Dell Inspiron 5150 Killer power adapter 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

08-22-2008, 07:06 AM	#3 (permalink)
Rasb Registered User Join Date: Aug 2007 Posts: 67 OS: XP	Re: Dell Inspiron 5150 Killer power adapter I had no luck with discovering the problem. In the end I removed the hard drives and sold the laptops on ebay and used the money to get me a new system. I wish you the best of luck with finding the answer. Rasb