vostro 1500 - New replacement battery Not charging...

Hello!

So about a year and a half ago the original 9 cell battery in my old dell vostro 1500 became a dud, and since then i have just been using the notebook like a desktop considering it's tied to its power adapter!

BUT long behold I got a new replacement 9 cell battery yesterday for christmas! (from atbatt.com). OH the joy of being MOBILE in my house from room to room! (or so i thought...)

I quickly realized that the battery will not charge! it came charged and has since not gone up 1% of charge and it's been plugged in quite awhile.

battery works,

power adapter works, (was using it as main power source for at least a year)

tried uninstalling the ACPI (or w/e) controller in device manager and re-scanning for hardware changes...



So it's a software bug, idk if I disabled something over a year ago when i decided that this notebook will be battery-less or what, but it is unfortunate!


So any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all!

 

Are you getting "AC adapter not recognized" in BIOS?

 

edit*

Yes I am.

I checked the Bios for the power adapter it said Unknown Power Adapter or something like that.

Do i need to update my bios or is some "switch" flipped elsewhere in windows that just needs a flick the other way?

thanks.

 

Are you using a genuine Dell 90 watt AC adapter? My battery would not charge and I got horrible throttling issues on a 65 watt AC adapter on my Vostro 1500.

 

Yes I am using the original Dell AC adapter. I can't seem to figure out if it is 90 watt or 65 watts, but i assume it is 90 watts considering the original notebook came with a 9 cell battery.


The NEW 9 cell I am using is NOT a Dell battery, my dad got it from atbatt.com, btw.

Thanks

 

That's a common problem on the Vostro 1500 where it prompts you on boot that it doesn't recognize the AC Adapter type. The easy workaround is to disconnect the adapter from the back of the laptop, reconnect and press F1.

I've had a total of 4 Vostro 1500 laptops do this. I think it has something to do with either the BIOS or the motherboard doesn't update the BIOS from a cold start. And that's usually when it happens after a shut down and the laptop has been off for awhile. Dell never addressed this issue/quirk.

 

when you that it prompts you on boot do you mean at the desktop or when you first turn it on w/ the loading screens?

cause i am getting NO prompts on the desktop nor when i initially boot it. I went into the bios (f2?) and did as you said, unplugged, re-plugged, & hit F1, but the AC Adapter type still = "Unknown Device Installed" and the Battery is still idle at 27% charge.

still not charging.

any other suggestions? Thank you everyone for what you have provided thus far.

 

I think you may need a new AC Adaptor,

The "unknown Device" is a common ac adaptor fault. if you can get hold of another to at least test might help diagnose the issue.

typically the cord from the adaptor wears around the strain releif and causes the unknown adaptor fault


I also seen this issue with older BIOS versions, but if you go the BIOS update route be aware that some Dell BIOS updates have gone bad, and with the unknown adaptor issue it may not let you update the BIOS.

 

It prompts you as soon as the laptop tries to boot. And the screen changes and says it doesn't recognize the AC Adapter and press F1 to continue. That's where I unplug the adapter and reconnect it. After that I press F1.

As a side note, i'm on the latest V1500 BIOS and have seen 3 other brand new 1500's do the same thing.

If you are not charging the battery then I agree with others the most likely possibility is that you have a defective adapter. Does the green light come on the adapter? If you have a volt meter have you checked for output voltage at the adapter, connector?

 

No, the adapter works fine, the green light is on. I used the adapter as the power source for over a year, and was up until i got this new battery a couple days ago.

I just can't get the new battery charging.

Would you suggest updating the bios? is the version you're using stable?

If that's the route, if you could point me to a good guide for doing so as well as the location of the version you're on, i would greatly appreciate it.

thanks



***edit.

I just purchased a NEW AC adapter.

Does anyone think this will solve the problem? Will the Bios recognize a new one? ie. will it change from "Unknown Power Adapter" to something else

will my battery ever charge?!?!


thanks.