Dell D620 - Battery Is Good but Computer only works on AC Power Adapter

Hi All,

I have a Dell D620. I bought a brand new battery for it off eBay. However, my D620 does not power on with the battery installed. The machine turns on only if using the AC power adapter or when attached to the port replicator. If it is plugged into the adapter, the moment I unplug it, the machine goes off immediately - total loss of power.

The machine will recognise the battery, charge it to full capacity, but will not power on unless the AC adapter is plugged in. The bios says the battery is good, and shows the charge. Nevertheless, thinking it may be a dud battery, I went to a second hand computer store and tested it in another machine (D630), to make sure it works. It turned on the Dell D630 no problems--even showed 4hrs of charge remaining in the WinXP battery meter.

Can anyone point me in the right direction. Is this a Mainboard issue? or is there some other connection inside the computer that may be loose. I pulled the computer appart a couple of times in the past to clear the dust from the the air intake behind the cooling fan as the CPU had been overheating. Once the dust was cleared out the computer ran fine. However, I had to do this one more time just now, before I got the new battery. Perhaps I've done something else in the process, to cause the battery to fail powering up the computer. Not sure though.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Thanks.

Dell D620, 4GB Ram, Centrino Duo T2400 @1.8Ghz, Bluetooth, DVD R/W, 60GB HDD, WinXP Pro SP3.

 

Is it a genuine OEM battery? If not, I would try to get an OEM battery to test.

Otherwise, you're probably looking at a fracture in your motherboard near the battery contact. I've seen this happen to D610's before, which required pushing the battery to get it to work.

 

If it works in a D630 but not in your D620, I'd pretty much guarantee that it's a motherboard problem with your D620. Do you know if a module bay battery works?

 

Yeah I see this on all the latitude models from time to time around the office. Likely going to need a mobo replacement. Or convert it to a desktop haha.

 

Thanks for your reply. No, I don't have a module bay battery to test with. But yeah, it definately works in the D630, just not in my D620. If it is a motherboard problem, is it fixable, or does it mean a new motherboard? Probably not worth the fix if it means a replacement m-board.

 

I've got a port replicator, so I've been using it virtually as a desktop anyway, when I'm at my desk. Just fed up with having to plug it in everywhere I go with it. Ah well, I guess this is goodbye to my trusty D620 as a portable. (sigh)

 

No, it is not a genuine OEM battery, but even my old OEM battery gave about 1 minute of life, enough to start the computer. Now it is the same--totally dead once the power adapter plug is pulled out. Will check the fractured motherboard suggestion out. Thanks.

 

If the machine is recognizing and charging the battery, I doubt there is a fracture. I'd say you'll need to replace the motherboard, but they aren't that expensive anymore. Maybe $50 to $100?

 

Good excuse to upgrade, lol

 

get one with a better graphics card though, i had a d820 with similar problems. i had the mobo replaced 4 times on warranty, and then after the warranty it was fine. i bought an agptek module bay battery which was only 50 bucks and it works great, that company is really reliable, but i had another pair of regular batteries that were crap and didn't work. now that i think of it im pretty sure i had every accessory for the d820, the dock, the external disk drive bay, dvd drive, dvd writer, floppy drive, both types of ac adapter 2 and 3 prong.

One great thing about the latitude dx20 series was the battery life.