m1530 "plugged in. not charging" solution.

[Channelz]

Hello guys, i was having this wierd behavior of my laptop where battery woudnt charge above 6%, ive tried most of the "solutions" on the web, but none of them worked.

-Desinstalling Microsoft's ACPI-Compliant control method battery
-Doing a vista clean install
-Restarting/Removing/Plugging the battery from the laptop with the system running and shut down, and all sorts of combinations between.
-Trying different AC (from dell, some of my friends have got some dell systems, i tried a m1330 AC)
-Tried to find a battery calibrator, but was unsuccesful, and even tried to downgrade my BIOS, but couldnt because my battery wasnt charged above 10% (thats a requisite to flash the BIOS)

NONE OF THOSE WORKED.

So i called dell, they told me to go to the BIOS, tech guys told me that the problem could be figured out there by 2 ways, it'd either:

-Recognize the AC adapter (in due case, it was a battery problem)
-Or it wouldnt recognize it (in which case, it would be a MoBo or a AC adapter problem.

Turned out it recognized the AC adapter, so next step was to send me a new battery, since i had a 6 cell battery (which the dell guy confirmed after i gave him the serial number of the battery) i expected to receive a 6 cell battery replacement, but no, lucky me i received a 9 CELL BATTERY INSTEAD, free within warranty period (system is only 7 months old) so yeah, im happy, and my battery is charging again.

Everything is fine, so i thought i would share this info for you guys.

One thing to get in consideration: The embedded battery health indicator might not indicate that the battery is healthy, since my faulty battery had 5/5 green lights when i tried to check the health but was still faulty (my new one has 5/5 health lights and works wonderful)

Have a nice day.

[hooligan001]

Glad to hear you got it sorted!

Just one thing though...

When you say

One thing to get in consideration: The embedded battery health indicator might not indicate that the battery is healthy, since my faulty battery had 5/5 green lights when i tried to check the health but was still faulty (my new one has 5/5 health lights and works wonderful)

If you press the battery health button it will show how much charge it has left (5/5 full, 1/5 verging on empty).

However if you hold the button, it will show the health of the battery (0/5 being in new condition, 5/5 being pretty much dead)

Are you sure you held the button down? not just pressed it?

Just something to remember

[Channelz]

Yup, pretty much, as soon as i pressed it, it just showed 1 light (meaning it had very little charge) however, when left pressed, it showed 5 lights, i think u have the health lights backwards, as my new battery, when fully charged, shows 5 lights on both, charge and health (pressing and holding).

[Channelz]

Ohhh nevermind, i just did the test, and yeah, when fully charged it shows 5/5 when pressed, and no lights at all when press and hold. Sorry
I take that back. :P

[ciesky]

Glad to hear you got it sorted!

Just one thing though...

When you say



If you press the battery health button it will show how much charge it has left (5/5 full, 1/5 verging on empty).

However if you hold the button, it will show the health of the battery (0/5 being in new condition, 5/5 being pretty much dead)

Are you sure you held the button down? not just pressed it?

Just something to remember

Hi,
I try to hold the button, it shows 3/5. What does it mean? Is the battery dead?
My battery won't charge when plugging in.

[mfield]

I'm having the same problem, swapped battery same problem, changed charger same problem.

When I go into bios settings, and go up and down on menu and then plug out and in the charger it starts to work - only to stop charging once I plug out and back in again.

My warranty is out - if I renew will they fix this for me?

Any help would be great!

[Cin']

I'm having the same problem, swapped battery same problem, changed charger same problem.

When I go into bios settings, and go up and down on menu and then plug out and in the charger it starts to work - only to stop charging once I plug out and back in again.

My warranty is out - if I renew will they fix this for me?

Any help would be great!

When did your warranty expire? Sometimes, if it hasn't been that long, you can get them to replace.


Cin...

[mfield]

When did your warranty expire? Sometimes, if it hasn't been that long, you can get them to replace.


Cin...

I just got it sorted, I reverted back to the A09 BIOS and so far it's charging away, it seems as if the A12 BIOS is causing the problem! I'm well chuffed as my warranty is out 7 months and they wanted 150 quid to extend it!

[greep]

I just got it sorted, I reverted back to the A09 BIOS and so far it's charging away, it seems as if the A12 BIOS is causing the problem! I'm well chuffed as my warranty is out 7 months and they wanted 150 quid to extend it!

Hi Mfield,
I have the same problem with M1530.
Tried different adapter & battery etc... Nothing worked.
My warranty expired in Jan 09.

I'm now thinking of replacing the power jack (already ordered one) but as you're saying the downgrade of BIOS to A09 worked for you, it may also work for me. My current BIOS version is A12.

When you had the problem, was your power adapter recognized in BIOS or it was under "Unknown adapter"?
My adapter was not recognized in BIOS and that's why it wasn't charging the battery.
Although once every 100 times (when I plugged in and out the power adapter) it did recognized the adapter and then charged the battery.

Also, where did you download the A09 BIOS from?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[Nivk]

Same problem, bios A12 doesn't charge the battery but A09 does....
You can find it at Dell's driver page clicking bios and then other versions, or here for A09 version.