AC Adaptor problems

Laptop switching to battery while connected to AC adapter
Q. While turned on, the laptop will switch to battery power even if connected with the AC adaptor (sometimes during boot-up, or after a while) until the battery drains out, he then goes to hibernation (the battery light is off). If no battery in the laptop, it will shut down, and the AC light will blink very fast. The battery (li-ion) will only charge up to 10%, where it then jumps right up to 100%, and will discharge from 100% to 90% then jump to 0%, go to hibernation, and fails to complete the process, shutting down. The adaptor makes a small “camera flash charging” sound, stabilizing at 19v. When charging, it repeatedly makes the “charging sound” Faulty AC adaptor? Or Faulty battery? Or Both?
A. First problem: The laptop switches to battery power even with connected AC adapter. Most likely you have a faulty power jack. It’s either broken or loose. It’s a known issue with laptops and you can fix it by replacing/resoldering the power jack or relocating it outside laptop case.
It also could be a problem with the power cord. Find a multimeter and check the AC adapter. See if the power cuts off when you jiggle the power cord. If it does, replace the adapter.
Second problem: The battery will discharge from 100% to 90% and then jump to 0%. It sounds like a bad battery.
Battery charging light is on even when power adapter is unplugged and laptop is stitched off
Q.The yellow light for battery charging does not go even after switching the laptop off and power jack is disconnected. Battery does not charge at all with power source connected.
A. First of all, try reconnection the battery if you haven’t done it already.
The battery plugs directly into the connector attached to the motherboard. If the battery charging light stay on even when the power adapter is unplugged and the laptop is switched off, it’s either bad battery or something is wrong with the motherboard. The only way to find the culprit is testing the laptop with another known good battery.
Also, you can try this. Remove the battery and plug in the power adapter. If the battery charging LED lights up even when the battery is removed, most likely you have a problem with the motherboard.
Battery charges only when the laptop is off
Q. Bought a Laptop without AC Adapter. I noticed it would charge the battery OK when the laptop was off but once in windows it would not charge the battery.
A. This is very important to choose the right AC adapter for your laptop. The output voltage MUST be exactly the same. If your laptop requires 18.5V you must use 18.5V adapter. The amperage should be the same or higher. If the laptop requires 4.74A adapter, you’ll have to find an adapter which provides 4.74A or MORE.
While using AC adapter alone or battery alone, laptop works. While using them together, I am getting a problem.
Q. While using AC adapter alone or battery alone, laptop works. However while using them together, laptop LED lights blinks and the power meter for battery drops down immediately to 0% critical level, whereas the battery LED indicator says it’s full. I tried to unplug the AC adaptor while it went down to 0%, then the power meter for the battery came back to normal 85%.
A. There could be a few different reasons why it happens:
1. It might be an issue with the BIOS. Make sure the laptop has the latest version of BIOS installed, update it if needed.
2. It might be a software related issue. If you have some kind of power management utility installed try uninstalling it and use Windows power management utility instead. Also I would try reinstalling the operating system if upgrading the BIOS or removing the power management utility does not help.
3. If you still experience the same problem even after upgrading the BIOS and reinstalling Windows, most likely you have a problem with the motherboard. Apparently the charging circuit is not working properly. I assume it’s not a problem with the battery. You’ll have to check the motherboard in this case.
Problem with my battery. 100% to about 40% the battery discharging normally then suddenly from 40% it drop directly to 2%.
Q. When I use only on battery, from 100% to about 40% the battery discharging normally (last about 1 hour) then suddenly from 40% it drop directly to 2%.
When I plug the AC cord, it won’t directly charge (the charge LED is still not on). After 10 to 20 minutes it then starts to charge the battery (the indicator say that it can be charged to 100%).
If I turn-off the laptop and then charge the battery, it won’t also directly charge but the delay is much shorter (maybe just about 1-2 minutes).
Is this the sign of a bad battery (when hot it can’t be charged?) or maybe a bad AC adapter (not enough power to charge the battery when the laptop is turned on?)
Note that this symptom is always repeating when I use the laptop.
A. From the first part of your complaint description I can see that you have a bad battery. The percentage might vary, but the process of discharging is the same – the battery discharges fine until some point and then the remaining charge suddenly drops to the minimum. You’ll have to replace the battery.
I’m not sure about the second part. Probably it’s a battery related problem too. Just in case check if there is a newer version of BIOS available for your laptop. If you find one, upgrade the BIOS.
The battery is 100% charged but it will die within a few minutes as soon as the laptop is unplugged.
Q. When I unplug the power it will run off the battery, the battery icon says it is 100% charged and I have 2+ hrs remaining, but within a few minutes I get the “critical battery level” message and it will die. When I plug it back into AC power the battery charge light comes on (and will remain on for over a hour), but I will have the same problem with it dying as soon as it is unplugged. Do I need a new battery?
A. It looks like you have a bad battery. Here are some behaviors typical for a dying laptop battery:
1. The battery charges normally (according to the battery icon) but as soon as you unplug the laptop, it dies almost momentarily.
2. The battery charges normally. When you unplug the laptop, it discharges normally until some point and after that point starts discharging very fast. For example it might take 10-15 minutes to discharge from 100% to 80% and then it discharges from 80% to 0 for 2-3 minutes.

I have a Dell Inspiron 6000 that just turned two years old.

After one year, my dell 6-cell battery started to falter, so Ipurchased a new 9-cell battery. This worked fine until a couple ofmonths ago when I noticed that my 65W adaptor was frayed. I bought anew 65W Dell Inspiron 6000 ac adapter andit worked well for about a week until I noticed that my battery wasn’tcharging at times. If I was patient, or unplugged the adapter andplugged it back in, the battery began charging and all was saved.

This lasted only a short time until my Dell Inspiron 6000 batterywouldn’t charge at all for long periods of time, and sometimes thecomputer wouldn’t turn on, even if plugged into the wall. I thought itmight still be the adaptor, so I borrowed a fully functioning 90W Delladapter from a family member to test the system. This worked better,but still not great.

When I removed the battery and started only fromAC power, the functionality was also intermittent. Usually, if thecomputer actually started, I received the start-up error “The Inspiron 6000 AC AdapterType could not be determined, etc. etc. etc.” After pressing F1, thecomputer booted, but if the battery wasn’t in, the computer didn’tusually last long before shutting off. Unsure if maybe the battery wasthe problem, I put the 6-cell Inspiron 6000 batteryback in, and it too wouldn’t charge, although (together with the 90Wadapter) my computer would at least start more consistently if pluggedin. The error remained however, and sometimes the system stopsrecognizing power and switches to my ever dwindling battery power untilthe adapter is recognized again.

The problem is with the jack on the motherboard inside our Inspiron 6000’s. This is the jack you plug your power plug into on the back of the laptop.

Somehow the jack gets worn and does not make correct contact withthe laptop so the Laptop does not see the power supply as a legit Dellbrand. So the powersupply will not charge the laptop battery and run the laptop at the same time.

DC power jack repair guide. Do-it-yourself instructions.

Modern laptops are all sold with built-in wireless laptop ac adapter.Some power notebooks used by corporate road warriors will have powerfulcellular adapters that connect the laptop to the Internet via the cellphone infrastructure

A bad connection between DC-IN power jack on the system board and the system board is a very common problem with dell pa 12,dell e1505 and Dell Inspiron 6000notebooks. If your laptop is out of warranty, then you can fix theproblem by resoldering DC-IN jack on the system board. If it’s stillunder warranty, it would be fixed at no charge to you. Problem symptoms:

• Laptop randomly shuts down without any warning.
• Power LED and battery charge LED start flickering when you wigglethe power cord or the AC adapter tip on the back or your laptop.
• The battery will not get charged.
• When you plug ac adapter for laptop, the laptop appears to be dead and there is no LED * activity at all (DC-IN jack on the system board is broken).

To fix the problem, you have to take your laptop apart, remove the system board to resoleder or replace the DC-IN jack. dell pa 12 and Dell Inspiron 6000 disassembly guides will help you to remove the system board. Take a closer look at the power jack on the system laptop board witha magnifying glass. In most cases you get the power problem because ofa bad connection between the DC jack and the system board, you’ll see acrack between the DC jack connector and the system board.