Although my Inspiron will run on the mains it will not charge the battery. I have replaced the battery and charger but with no result. The charging light flashes red and then turns blue. Can you advise if this is most likely to be a motherboard problem. Many thanks Allen Easto

Do the batteries charge? Are they charged? The green indicator normally is the status signal that the battery is charged and the red indicates that the battery needs charging or is charging. If you plug in a charged battery, some chargers will flash red momentarily then go out. This is an indication that the charger checked the battery (red light) and if the charge is good, the red light will go out. I hope this helps you.

This is a common problem. It may be that the charger is dammaged. these Dell chargers have a micro thin communication cable in them that tell the charger to charge the battery. this micro thin cable can often break. Its use it to prevent the laptop battery from over charging, but if it breaks or becomed broken inside tha charger cable, then the laptop simply won't get the charge signal and the battery won't charge. If this is the case, then you will need to replace the charger with another Dell charger compatible with your laptop

Since you have already replaced the battery and the laptop works with the AC charger, then probably the charge circuit in the system board (mother board) is bad. I have rarely seen an AC charger that will power the laptop but not charge the battery. 99% of the time, if it is not the battery, it is the system board.

Check the voltage output of the charger. It should be about 28 volts. Most likely your batteries are dead (over 2 years old?)

If your power adapter appears to be charging your laptop battery, but the laptop will not run on the battery or only runs for a short time this usually indicates that the battery will not hold a charge and needs to be replaced. Although it should run fine with the power adapter connected.

The ac power jack needs to be either resoldered or replaced.

Hi,
This only mean that you have a failing battery and does not hold charge anymore.. battery life can last upto 2years, depending on how frquent you use..

HOpe this helps

A common problem is for the power jack connections on the system board to go bad. They break loose from the main board because the power plug gets flexed and then the power doesn't get from the adapter to the board. No power light (or intermittent flickering) and no battery charging results.

What you need to do (or have done) is to resolder the power jack onto the board. This isn't difficult, but it involves getting the main board out to reach the solder side. In some cases the board can be damaged because of the bad connections and isn't repairable. Then the board needs to be replaced. But most often the soldering fixes the trouble.

Was the battery a Dell replacement? or was it a Chinese replacement battery?
Your charging circuit may have been damaged.

It does charge until the battery reaches full charge, then charger stops and laptop use adapter's power. The whole system is thought to not damage or wear the battery while in charge. Leave battery safely inside your Dell while using it with power adaptor, it should not make any difference in your battery life.

regards