General Hardware - Recent Threads

OK. So I've read more posts about this than I care to say. However, I have not found a definitive answer to this question: Why is my Dell suddenly not recognizing the battery OR the power adapter? Both are genuine Dell products and the battery has more than enough useable life. The adapter is brand new and yes it is the correct wattage, voltage, etc. for my Dell studio 1558.

Every time I restart the computer, it beeps twice and I get a double failure that the adapter and battery are not recognized by the system. This has happened with two adapters now. I get two different blinking power status light combinations as well. Sometimes it is just constant blinking orange/amber, other times it will blink orange/amber 4 times and then once white.

I've tried the following troubleshooting steps to this point with no luck:

1) Upgraded BIOS to A12 and tried Loading Default Settings

2) Deleted both Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery and Adapter in Device Manager under Battery. Then scanned for changes after removing and replacing battery, charger, etc.

3) Removed and then put battery back in with computer on. Interestingly, the computer recognizes the battery for about a minute and then goes back to "Plugged In, Not Charging" right after clicking on the battery icon.

4) Upgraded to Win 8 and ran all updates, installed all drivers, etc. (Issue occurred on Win 7 too, was hoping it could have been an OS thing)

5) Pressed Fn + F3 to try enabling battery charging

At this point I'm really hoping it's not the motherboard. It doesn't look like the Studio 1558 has a separate power board, which really stinks. I have plenty of tech savvy and would be willing to try replacing the DC Input Jack myself.

Anyone with the same issue tried this and gotten a positive result? Any other suggestions for this widespread issue? Is there a way to reset the battery charging circuit so it doesn't disable itself in the BIOS?

I find it hard to believe there is no real workaround except replace the entire motherboard.

Please help me.

I have a dell M5010 laptop. There was a problem with the screen of my laptop (diagonal lines coming when i opened "my computer" window) for which the dell support replaced my screen while my laptop was under warranty. The screen was replaced in the month of february 2013 and my warranty expired on 3rd of March 2013. Now after two months of my screen replacement i am experiencing white outs which is quite random and happens at start up as well as while i am working on my laptop. After the white screen remains for a few seconds the screen comes back with vertical line transition. I don't know what to do and as the warranty has expired i am afraid it would cost me dearly to have the problem fixed at dell support centre. Can anyone suggest me something????

This particular model of dell had lots of problem from the very beginning and had been a sort of bad luck for me. At first the hard disk along with optical drive was replaced and then the screen. And now the screen still after replacement is showing new defects. I am frustrated with this product although the customer service of dell is very good.