Battery not charging
14 November 2009 - 5:07pm
My old Laptop dell latitude d600 has suddenly stopped charging the battery,
It has been working fine up until yesterday, It is normally plugged in and occasionally used on battery power only, when running on battery only i got aprox 2 hours on it (its old).
this was fine for what i wanted it for the occasional lookup for things while watching tv.etc.
now when i boot i get a message:- "The ac power adapter type cannot be determined.this will prevent optimal system performance"
its working fine on ac. but the battery isnt charging.
i have checked the terminals on the battery compartment while its plugged in and am getting juice from them ( havnt a clue what i am doing ) three of the pins are giving a reading of 4 v dc .
will get a pic later it it will help.
would the battery be knackered? i thought they would just fade away steadily getting worse and worse.
i am running ubuntu,
thanks
JOhn
17 November 2009 - 2:21pm
#2
Watty;3098 wrote:
They can die pretty sudden,However has the power jack got a coax plug or a 3 hole squarish plug with a bevel?
one of these
17 November 2009 - 10:04pm
#3
That's the regular "coax" type plug. No PSU rating signalling. The 3 pin type mine has, uses 3rd pin to signal rating of PSU.
What happens if you take battery out and turn on Laptop with PSU?
17 November 2009 - 11:48pm
#4
yes its working fine from mains, the battery just isn't charging.
this is the battery bay with the battery removed.
I am getting juice to 3 or 4 of these pins while its plugged in.
hope this explains a bit better.
18 November 2009 - 10:57am
#5
New Battery time I think...
18 November 2009 - 2:35pm
#6
Yea think so.
I thought it strange though to give up suddenly.
jeez they are not cheap 129 europs
Guess I will chance fleabay 
28 June 2010 - 3:04pm
#7
Just to update this. got a new battery but it wouldnt charge,
so splashed out on a 15 euro power adaptor. all working fine now.
28 June 2010 - 4:48pm
#8
Good.
I got a new battery for my 8 y.o. Dell Inspiron 8200 just a month or so ago. It's nice to go from 3minutes operation to nearly 3 hours. It's cheaper than buying a UPS
I replaced the keyboard too as it was falling to bits (though still working due to swapping parts around).
They can die pretty sudden,
However has the power jack got a coax plug or a 3 hole squarish plug with a bevel?
The batteries often have 2 year to 4 year life.
I got 4 years on my 1st battery pack and about 14 months on 2nd one. I get about 3mins on it now and when they do "go", they often don't charge or charge erratically, or normal green LED for charge flashes orange.
My laptop is 8 years old soon. 1.8GHz P4 with 1600x1200 screen, so worth replacing battery again
tap, tap.. Is this thing turned on?