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Computer woes
Melinoe
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Back in May of 2009 I got a Dell XPS M1730 laptop as a graduation present. For the most part it's been a pretty good computer, but it has issues with the AC adapter. I kind of have to mess around with it to get the computer to recognize the adapter (battery light on the right side flashes to let me know all is well), otherwise I get a message along the lines of "AC adapter type cannot be determined, please plug in a Dell 230W AC adapter, until then your computer will run slowly and have performance issues" which is exactly what happens, and the battery doesn't charge when it does this.
They replaced the power adapter once when the computer was still under warranty, which I later figured out probably wasn't necessary but oh well, hindsight. Last night when I was using it it was working fine, I restarted it after installing iTunes or something and when I logged onto Windows the computer spontaneously decided to stop recognizing the adapter despite the fact that it remained plugged in and nothing really happened. I turned the computer off and tried to get the computer to recognize the adapter to no avail. So I chatted online with Dell's tech support and they told me that it was probably the connector on the motherboard, which I figured, and they told me to call the Out of Warranty repair line. Those guys told me that it was going to be $528+tax to get my computer repaired, or $199 if somehow the issue magically wasn't the motherboard, which.. is a lot of money.
Has anyone had similar experiences with this and know of any alternate solutions to paying them 1/3 of what I paid for the computer to get it repaired? My dad has offered to pay but he doesn't know the total yet and I'd rather not have him shell out that much money if it can be avoided. I've since gotten the computer to recognize the adapter again (while I was chatting to the tech support of course), but I have no idea how long this is going to last and would like to have a backup plan for when it eventually fails.
They replaced the power adapter once when the computer was still under warranty, which I later figured out probably wasn't necessary but oh well, hindsight. Last night when I was using it it was working fine, I restarted it after installing iTunes or something and when I logged onto Windows the computer spontaneously decided to stop recognizing the adapter despite the fact that it remained plugged in and nothing really happened. I turned the computer off and tried to get the computer to recognize the adapter to no avail. So I chatted online with Dell's tech support and they told me that it was probably the connector on the motherboard, which I figured, and they told me to call the Out of Warranty repair line. Those guys told me that it was going to be $528+tax to get my computer repaired, or $199 if somehow the issue magically wasn't the motherboard, which.. is a lot of money.
Has anyone had similar experiences with this and know of any alternate solutions to paying them 1/3 of what I paid for the computer to get it repaired? My dad has offered to pay but he doesn't know the total yet and I'd rather not have him shell out that much money if it can be avoided. I've since gotten the computer to recognize the adapter again (while I was chatting to the tech support of course), but I have no idea how long this is going to last and would like to have a backup plan for when it eventually fails.
Melinoe on
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Dell took the older replaced adapter so I don't have that anymore. I am figuring that it's probably a motherboard issue. External battery charger isn't really an option, as like I said, it pretty much has to be plugged into power for me to do anything with it, especially its intended purpose (gaming).
How would flashing the BIOS get around it if it's a hardware problem?
This seems to be an issue a LOT of people have had with various models of dell laptops. It's a real pain but a cheap fix if the adapter works out for you.
e: some seller on ebay with pretty good ratings is selling a refurbished one for like 50 bucks with a two year warranty available for $13.50, is buying a refurbished ac adapter a terrible idea or is this worth considering?
You also have worn out the battery. Laptops were never intended to be used mostly on the battery. Battery is only a temporary power source to make blackouts irrelevant and to make moving a computer to a new location easy. If using its battery as intended - almost always connected to the AC adaptor, then your battery is still good for over four hours.
Now, constantly fixing symptoms will not solve anything. Monitor the laptop's "battery is recharging" light. Shake the AC adaptor plug to see that recharge light illuminate and extinguish. That means the AC power adaptor is completely detached from the motherboard; only making intermittent connections. A problem traceable to leaving that AC adaptor connected whenever moving any laptop.
No, the computer has never had more than 90 minutes (give or take) of battery power since the day I opened it brand new out of the box. It's a gaming laptop with dual graphics cards and a decent CPU with a 17" monitor and 4gb of ram. It's not meant to be a portable laptop; it's a desktop replacement. Like I said earlier, I never use it on battery alone, it's always connected to the adapter while I'm using it.
I don't really move it around much and I always unplug it when I do but the motherboard thing seems likely. I'm going to take it to a computer shop to have them plug in a for-sure working adapter just to make sure that it isn't just my adapter that's screwed up, and then act accordingly. If the adapter is busted I'll buy a new adapter, if their adapter is dysfunctional I'll just send it into Dell and pay up to get the motherboard replaced.