I’ve got an old Dell Vostro 1700 laptop that has problems charging. The charging plug had broken off the charger, and a third party charge did not work, so I soldered the third party plug onto the original power supply brick.
This kluged adapter gives me a message “Cannot identify power adapter” or something like that. I bought a replacement battery and power adapter from LaptopBatteriesOne and I’m still getting the same error.
Is it possible that the electronic charging circuitry within the laptop has gone south?I’m reluctant to buy a battery and charger from Dell because their outrageous prices are approaching the cost of an entire new laptop.
In any case, from what I understand, there are no smarts in the battery charging system on the laptop. That is to say the battery indicator works on the amount of time the laptop remains plugged in, and not by any sensor that detects the amount of charge injected into the battery.
My question is: Is there possibly something wrong with the charging circuity?
As soon as I pull the power plug off the machine, the computer dies immediately.
Well, I went and looked at various forums and was just trying to get the battery meter on the taskbar back. Various people suggested going to the control panel and going to Power Options and turning the battery power meter on. This was of course greyed out. People were suggesting several things and then someone said that they reseated the battery and got the meter back.
Ha! This was the solution. My battery meter came back, the third party AC adapter is recognized, and the battery is now showing a 3.5 hour charge, which is great for this honking huge piece of crap. Before, if the adapter popped out, the computer would die immediately. Now I guess I can plug in my old battery and old adapter and see if it still works.
I don’t know if it’s OK to endorse a manufacturer, but it’s LaptopBatteryOne that I bought the adapter and battery from. They’re more expensive than all the other third party vendors, but are a fraction of Dell prices. They’ve also got a no questions asked money back guarantee and 24 hour support. I was about ready to call their tech support, but I’m pretty sure that was the problem!
You are correct about OEM manufacturers charging outrageous sums for replacement batteries and chargers. Look on the web or Ebay for some good prices on both. I purchased a replacement battery for my HP for $23 and it has lasted a year do far with no problems.
As far as chargers go, I went for an aftermarket one made by iGo. It was fairly expensive at $90, but it came with 6 or 7 tips that will work with almost any laptop. We have three laptops in the house, each with a different plug adaptor so the iGo will work with all of them.