Dell laptop charging problem???

[Andy-Always]

Has anyone come accross this?
Plug the Dell mains charger into the mains and you get a green light on the transformer - - when you plug the dc socket into the laptop, the green light goes out and it doesn't charge!

Obviously a fault with the laptop as I have tried another charger - the charger is cutting out for protection.

Anyone been there?

[focuz]

The charging circuitry is in the laptops motherboard, sounds like this is your problem.

[pavilion]

Andy-Always, I would have to agree with focuz and guess that lappy power supply is pulling the adapter voltage down. Have you tried without the battery pack in the laptop. The feed to the laptop is paralleled between the battery pack and its power supply/regulator. It is conceivable that if you have a bad cell, it's causing the adapter to shut down. After you remove the pack and the problem remains unchanged, then I would suggest to contact Dell and take the laptop for repair.

[Andy-Always]

I've had the bare motherboard sitting on the bench and still the charger cuts out!!!

I was hoping someone may have had experience with these boards and know what part of the board deals with the power in??

It won't be going to Dell but it might be going under the hammer and in the bin!

Cheers!

[pavilion]

I've had the bare motherboard sitting on the bench and still the charger cuts out!!!

I was hoping someone may have had experience with these boards and know what part of the board deals with the power in??

It won't be going to Dell but it might be going under the hammer and in the bin!

Cheers!

Keep the hammer at bay. Let me see what I can find out and post it a bit later. Could you post some of the laptop info: model, charger type, any accessories that came with mobo, etc. The more info, the better.

[Andy-Always]

This should tell you all:
Link to Dell (http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/en/details?c=uk&l=en&s=gen&~tab=2&~ck=ln&lnki=0)

Service tag: CF4PC1J

Quite sure the charging circuit is onboard but not certain!

Much appreciated...

[pavilion]

Andy, after some preliminary investigation it seems that earlier Inspirons had an issue with their DC power sockets (jacks) where the heat would melt the socket and/or short the charging pins. Your motherboard has a built-in power converter which in some instances is damaged if you use an incorrect power adapter, which I do not think is the case here. If the DC jack is the culprit of your problem, then all you need is to replace the socket (desolder/solder) which is not too difficult. I have provided a link to a service repair shop which seems to work on a lot of Dell laptops. Hope that helps, Andy.

http://www.techno-mart.co.uk/dell_inspiron_510m.html

[Andy-Always]

Thanks for your help,
I had already changed the dc socket, I thought that would be the problem although the old one looked good but I changed it anyway and still the same.

There is an alluminium casing dierctly behind the dc socket and the clearance is about 1mm - I'm wondering if the power plug was knocked and contact was made between the dc socket and casing, creating a short and blowing a component on the board.

Otherwise something has just given out on the board!

[pavilion]

Thanks for your help,
I had already changed the dc socket, I thought that would be the problem although the old one looked good but I changed it anyway and still the same.

There is an alluminium casing dierctly behind the dc socket and the clearance is about 1mm - I'm wondering if the power plug was knocked and contact was made between the dc socket and casing, creating a short and blowing a component on the board.

Otherwise something has just given out on the board!

It sure looks a lot more to be a shorted component on the motherboard. I was doing some searching on ebay, and had found a replacement mobos for 510m at $199. US.. Not sure if it's your worthwhile to get another mobo if you are not happy with a Dell product. I, myself will never buy another Dell after a nightmare I went through.

[focuz]

I do dell warranty repairs for my job. Actually this is a very common problem on the Inspiron's. I have never seen a bad socket, well except for the ones where people physically break it. Its almost always the motherboard. Not to sure why your bare board would not have worked. The board might not properly ground the power without per say a processor or something.

[pavilion]

I do dell warranty repairs for my job. Actually this is a very common problem on the Inspiron's. I have never seen a bad socket, well except for the ones where people physically break it. Its almost always the motherboard. Not to sure why your bare board would not have worked. The board might not properly ground the power without per say a processor or something.

focuz, are you saying the charging issue then is not a component failure? From your statement, one gets an impression that since the mobo is removed out of the case the charger should then work again.

[focuz]

Sorry let me clarify, its almost always an issue with the charging circuitry within the motherboard.

I have never came across an issue where their is a component failure with the dc socket burnt out, like suggested with the over heating issues. Though I'm sure it happens I just haven't dealt with it myself.

[pavilion]

focuz, then what do you suggest is Andy's best alternative>>

replacement vs. repair

[focuz]

Since I just do warrenty work, all I do is replacements. They don't bother trying to fix the board on the field. I just replace the motherboard and send the bad one back to the warehouse to be refurbished. So I wouldn't know the first thing when it comes to testing the charging circuitry and trying to repair the board.

[gemsley]

I do dell warranty repairs for my job. Actually this is a very common problem on the Inspiron's. I have never seen a bad socket, well except for the ones where people physically break it. Its almost always the motherboard. Not to sure why your bare board would not have worked. The board might not properly ground the power without per say a processor or something.

Hello I have just read your Quote regrding that you do Dell warrenty repairs, I have a Dell Inspiron 510M with the disconnected Motherboard DC jack fault.
I currently have 2 years left on my warrenty and contacted Dell support who stated that my fault was due to wear and tear and they will not replace the motherboard ????. As this seems quite a commen fault in the 510M why are Dell fobbing me off with this excuse, and what is the point of taking Dell warrenty when they use any excuse not to replace broken parts. I am a systems engineer for a telecoms company and we have had this problem with Latitude's and dell have replaced the boards with no quibble. Is the problem that I am not a company, I feel I have been ripped off with my additional warrenty.

[carl97]

I have had the same problem on a few Boards, On the ones i have had this problem the power Jack has come completely away from the board and probably shorted the motherboard power circuitry. You can see some more diagnostics and other tips including a DVD Video Tutorial that shows how to open general Laptops should you need to. Enter "powerjackrepair" into Google (You can find it at the top of a Google Search)

[star]

i have the same problem but i have a dell latitude d610

[Suther]

We have had two of these cases in the last 6 months, both were Dell Latitudes.

In both cases the battery was dead on arrival so could not check if the laptop even worked on battery power. Same symptoms you describe, green light on the power supply goes out when plug in to the laptop.

Replaced the DC power jack both times, just in case. By the way, desoldering a Dell DC jack is a serious pain as there are about 9 connections to be desoldered, including the structural ones.

When the new DC jack was in place I found in both cases that the green light on the laptop power supply stayed on, so the power supply wasn't cutting out any more to protect itself. Voltage was also getting to the motherboard.

However the laptops still would not charge the battery. Neither would they start up when you press the On button.

You can usually pick up a motherboard on ebay, either as a single spare part or from a spares/repair laptop. But be prepared to pay up to a third of the price of a brand new basic spec laptop.

Usually when I tell people the price they decide just to have their data downloaded from the hard disk and buy a new laptop.

[usacvlr]

I do dell warranty repairs for my job. Actually this is a very common problem on the Inspiron's. I have never seen a bad socket, well except for the ones where people physically break it. Its almost always the motherboard. Not to sure why your bare board would not have worked. The board might not properly ground the power without per say a processor or something.

Out of curiosity I assume you guys are sstill just swapping out boards entirely correct?

[usacvlr]

All of these have the same problem. I have seen more of them than I can come close to remembering. The 500, 600, 1100 and 5100 series all have similar issues. The dc/dc converter on the board is shot. Boards are cheap on ebay and I rarely try to troubleshoot the boards themselves. It's just not worth the time and there are NO schematics available. There is a common fix for some of these but you'll have to pay me to do it :)

(The non charging ones, not the shorted boards)

[dakotadan]

I entered the confines of DellHell a long time ago. I've got several of the older models and tons of parts to boot. Let me address the 600m for example. It has the dual voltage / center pin charger setup. This is probably the worse pos invention by dell to get people to purchase their product I've ever seen. Yea, like the third world country's can't counterfeit our $100 bills. Along with this technology you get a system that is very prone to charging problems. I've seen most combinations. Usually the system board will not recognize the charger, will power the unit, won't charge the battery. To check the charger voltages, use a short piece of plastic straw, cut off then cut thru to allow it to slide into barrel tip, pos meter to inside of barrel gnd to pin, should get around 17vdc, gnd to outside of barrel 19vdc. Have only seen a couple of problems with the chargers. Never seen a board jack of bad on these units, they've got so many solder connections(due to the dual volt charger plug) they probably have the strongest connection in any unit. I'd guess 98% of the time it's your board. Sometimes they will run with a charged battery but not the charger, sometimes the other way around. These dual volt charger Dells really turned up the heat in DellHell. A very important thing to remember especially buying from EBay or anywhere else is that when they say "Tested", usually they mean will power up the display and the HDD. Rarely do you see one advertised warranting the charging system. Never buy a board unless you get a warranty of some kind, I've purchased 6 boards just for the 600m, 4 where had charging issues. Price didn't matter either. The best thing to do is get an entire unit as cheap as you can and ask a flood of questions concerning these electrical problems. I write this as I have 2 customers both with Dell Laptop Charging issues, both need boards, I just received a board last week, from EBay, arrived and will not charge a good dell battery, will not recognize charger. These would have been decent systems if Dell had designed chargers/boards like everyone else in the industry and stop trying to screw the consumer.

[NYJimbo]

Never seen a board jack of bad on these units, they've got so many solder connections(due to the dual volt charger plug) they probably have the strongest connection in any unit. I'd guess 98% of the time it's your board.

Not sure what this means, maybe there is a typo in it, but are you saying you have never seen a Dell dc jack (9-pin) go bad ?. We replace at least one a week, sometimes more.

http://www.dummydomain1.com/dell9pin.jpg

[reesk92]

Not sure what this means, maybe there is a typo in it, but are you saying you have never seen a Dell dc jack (9-pin) go bad ?. We replace at least one a week, sometimes more.

http://www.dummydomain1.com/dell9pin.jpg

he probably dosent have much call for it

i can see what hes saying theres so many solder points you wouldnt think they would all break but obviousley they do