Dell Latitude wont acknowledge AC Adapter

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Phoenix426

New Member
i have a dell latitude c640 that i bought from a friend a few months back. I had the computer for about 2 months and it worked great, better than what i expected. well all of a sudden, i noticed that sometimes i had to wiggle the ac adapter around for awhile to get power to the laptop, and slowly it stopped taking in power from the ac adapter. i bought a new ac adapter in hopes that was the problem, but it still didnt charge. with both chargers, the light comes on the power brick, but no charge goes into the computer. do i have to get a whole new motherboard? is there a way to power it on through the usb port or something like that?
 
Besides a stretched connector socket on the board itself you may be seeing another type of problem with the Lithium battery itself. Dell has just started recalling some 4.1million of these batteries in the last week. The batteries are known to overheat and in some case catch on fire. Consult a Dell dealer/service center in your area on this.
 
PC eye said:
Besides a stretched connector socket on the board itself you may be seeing another type of problem with the Lithium battery itself. Dell has just started recalling some 4.1million of these batteries in the last week. The batteries are known to overheat and in some case catch on fire. Consult a Dell dealer/service center in your area on this.
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even if it was the battery, i should still be able to turn the computer on with the AC adapter plugged in and no battery inserted. right now, i have no way to turn the computer on.
 
haha. Oh man... That's too funny... I guess if your laptop catches on fire you'll have something to worry about. Jeez.

Phoenix, it has nothing to do with your battery as you know. The solder connections have come loose on the board... Cold solder joints is the official term for it. You have to send it back to Dell and they will resolder it for you. It's not a big deal, just a pain in the derriere. It is a VERY common problem with laptops. It's not just Dell, so don't be mad at them. :)
 
I didn't specify the battery as the cause but you now know about the massive recall on the Sony batteries Dell uses in their laptops. Cold solder joints is by no means anything new. But the recommendation here was to bring it or send it in to an authorized service center to have them go through it for you. And hopefully they won't stick one of those defective batteries as a replacement. :eek: :eek: :eek: !!!
 
SirKenin said:
haha. Oh man... That's too funny... I guess if your laptop catches on fire you'll have something to worry about. Jeez.

Phoenix, it has nothing to do with your battery as you know. The solder connections have come loose on the board... Cold solder joints is the official term for it. You have to send it back to Dell and they will resolder it for you. It's not a big deal, just a pain in the derriere. It is a VERY common problem with laptops. It's not just Dell, so don't be mad at them. :)
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will they charge for that?
 
I don't really know. I bet at least $100.00, but that's just a guess. If it's not under warranty, take it to a local shop that specializes in laptop repairs. You might get off easier.
 
If you go to a local repair shop make sure you see the Dell authorized service sticker on the iwindow. They will have ready access to any replacement parts. That will most likely be a Dell dealer anyway.
 
Usually a service center is equipped to run diagnostics on everything. If the board is toast you will pay the labor and replacement costs there. As a rule I work on desktops not portables. But even for a diagnostic exam they will charge. The amount depends on who looks it over.
 
No, you will not need a new motherboard and you don't have to take it to a Dell authorized shop either. It's just a case of lifting the board up and taking a soldering iron to the solder joints. Once the board is out, which is a serious pain in the ass, it takes two seconds to touch up the solder joints.
 
SirKenin said:
No, you will not need a new motherboard and you don't have to take it to a Dell authorized shop either. It's just a case of lifting the board up and taking a soldering iron to the solder joints. Once the board is out, which is a serious pain in the ass, it takes two seconds to touch up the solder joints.
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You are assuming that's the actual problem. If there is another problem in there on the board a shop that repairs that particular brand is where to take it for the warranty on service as well as being authorized by Dell.
 
I know for sure that is the problem. This isn't the first time I have run into this. Like I said, it's a very common problem. It's the stress on the joints from the plug being inserted and reinserted ad infinitum.

The only way that is not what it is is if he banged the plug pretty hard while it was inserted, in which case he could have cracked the socket or the mainboard... but it takes a considerable amount of force to do that.

There is, however, one last thing. Sometimes the wire will wear out right at the plug from flexing too much. If that is the case he will need a new adapter. It's easy enough to tell though. Just plug the adapter into the wall and touch the plug to your tongue. If you get a little jolt, which is quite harmless, then you know the adapter is good. I've done that more than once.
 
Hopefully it will turn out to be something external. But surprisingly it doesn't take that much to break a contact or two if you slid a case into anything. I had that happen on the old case where simply moving it back it saw a nice little bump make the PS2 for the mouse useless. Even on the new case built a month I tend to keep the mouse plugged into the usb port above the one used for a printer.
 
laptop AC adapter

This is slightly off-topic but i figured someone in this room could be of help so...I bought a replacement laptop AC adapter about a month ago from http://www.laptopsforless.com/laptopacadapter
and it works great. But, I was wondering if there is any reason to think that a replacement laptop AC adapter would be any worse than the manufacturers?
 
Nope.. Same crap different pile. :) They either work or they don't. Besides, do you honestly think that Dell makes their own adapters? They don't even make their own laptops. They get someone else to do it and slap their name on it.
 
Do you think Sony made the bad laptop batteries or simply put their name on them? Apple didn't waste quite the same amount of time starting a recall as Dell did when these problems came up lately.
 
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