plugged in not charing

so my laptop will no longer charge unless i unplug and plug it in for hours which is annoying especially since alienware is supposedly "high end gaming device" especially since i bring it to dota and smite tournaments me and my time are thinking about no longer using alienwares at the tournaments. ive done everything that ppl have said on the forums i did the discharge and tried uninstalling and re-installing the drivers and nothing helps

 

If you plug your computer in and restart, go into the Bios and look under adapter what does it say? does it list off your adapter or does it say unknown or unsupported ? Do you have any warranty left? if you do I suggest calling dell and requesting a new adapter first and see if that fixes the problem, it could simply be a bad chip in the adapter that tells the laptop it is a dell adapter. Worst case scenario it could be a motherboard issue and they will have to swap out the board. I had the same problem in my M17X and after 2 adapter failures in 6 months we had to replace the motherboard

If you don't have any warranty left do you know anyone else with the same model that you could test their adapter? This is probably a long shot but if you can get ahold of one without having to buy one then that would be best in case it isn't an adapter problem. That being said when my motherboard was causing my adapter to fail it would happen slowly over a few months, not immediately so if it is the same problem a new adapter may not fix it permanently either just an FYI.

Hope you get it sorted out.

 

well i have had myt motherboard replaced on this laptop awhile ago for another reason and it says unknown when i plug the charger in

 

Could be a bad adapter , could be a bad motherboard. I would have Dell send you out another adapter if that is an option to test, but if that does not fix it , or if it only temporarily fixes it then your probably looking at another MB

 

well they wont fix it they will say that is out of warranty and have me throw out another 150 dollars to fix it when they cant make a product right the first time

 

its fine tho cause im tired of the poor support that alienware has been giving sine i bought my laptop so instead of going to tech support i will put a claim in with the BBB on Monday

 

If the PC is out of warranty, there isn't much that tech support can do about it without charging for the parts needed. Why don't you try a friend's adapter? At least you could isolate the issue with that.

 

i have tried a friends and thr problem is if i didnt already pay for the part once i would pay but the fact is that ive already paid for a mother board once

 

I've had the same problem a while back.
Had my motherboard replaced, didn't fix it

I had a bad charger, so they sent me a new one and everything works fine now

 

If you replaced the motherboard, then the motherboard should have its own warranty. How long ago did you buy the computer? How long ago did you replace the motherboard? Did you buy a warranty extension?

Do you think Alienware should fix all computers that are out of warranty? Would you have been willing to pay more because of that? Most are not willing to pay more up front. But for the ones that are, they can buy a warranty extension.

Yes, I know it shouldn't break. But things sometime break, no matter how well built.

 

Hello to all
I just wanted to ring in no this topic. I work on computers on the side and have done some research on this problem, dell has incorporated a system to ensure that you use genuine dell products. the motherboard looks to see if the battery and charger are genuine, by it reading resistors in each.
what I have found more than not, is that the A/C adapter goes bad from the D/C plug being bend sharply and pulling the center wire from the center pin which is what the motherboard is looking for. so when that connection is lost the motherboard no longer see the resistor and tells you that it's "unknown".
For a cheep alternative look for a "Used" genuine dell charger on eBay (Be sure to look for your model type) Proper wattage, volts and amps
with a little bit of hunting you should be able to find one for around $15-30 dollars. A far cry from $150 and the time away from your machine...

 

I have had that problem, I contacted Dell and they sent me out a replacement charger and I have not had the issue since.

 

Was there any need to dig up this old thread from october?