Help, power adapter issues

I recently replaced my 4870M with another 4870M (And by recently I mean 1 hour ago). Everything works, except the laptop does not recognise the adapter. So, it is running on battery power for the next 30 minutes before it dies. I have unplugged the power, replugged, power drained, pretty much everything. The laptop wont use the AC power at all.

Also weird, my "G" and "H" keys seem to make the laptop use "Battery" or "AC
". However, if I leave it on AC, it goes back to battery 2 seconds later.

OSD also enjoys telling me that plugging in an official Dell AC adapter gives me optimal performance.

 

That sound like the well known Dell proprietary adapter issue.
Call Dell and ask for another one if you're still under warranty or try to find yourself a 240W rated Dell charger.
Does your battery charge with the laptop off? If it does try uninstalling OSD and reinstall(if you want).

When you get the new one, try to avoid bending the cable especially near the brick and near the plug

 

Whats weird, is it charges if I hold G or H. Seriously. The only way it uses the AC is if physically hold down G or H.


3 days ago, it was fine. Now it is not. This sucks.

 

That is weird! Could be the OSD playing tricks..
When you said power drain did you unplug the CMOS coincell battery in the process?

 

Did now.


Same thing. Battery dead now though. No way to turn it on. This is bull honkeys.

 

Yeah, its not charging the battery.


All I can think of is that the port is fried. This really sucks.

 

So does the blue ring around the adapter's plug light up?
Of it does, turn off your laptop(well, it is already) and plug the cord, see if it charges (if I remember correctly the alien head on the lid should pulse), leave it a while.

 

That's what I have done. The blue light is on. No Alien Head lights up. Outside or inside.

Just dark.

 

If you take the battery out with the laptop off, does the alien head pulses?

 

nope. nothing changes. Stays dark.

 

Ok, I just checked my R2 and it doesn't pulse when you pull out the battery with it off, only the M17x does that (i'll miss it), sorry about that.
So at the moment I think you have a bad adapter or a bad plug on the motherboard side (less likely).

 

any way to test the adapter without another alienware?

 

A multimeter.

 

Figured it out. The part that connects to the laptop, with the blue light, the metal pin inside was loose. It just fell out now. So you were right I suppose It's a power adapter issue.

These things are expensive too.

 

That connects to the data cable that tells your laptop "this right here is an official Dell charger so let it thru".

You can fix that if you have basic soldering skills, a plug like that can be found on e.bay for cheap and fix it yourself. There are three wires inside. Should save you the money for a new one.

 

Not sure I understand you. The part with the blue light has three wires inside it? I only saw the metal pin inside the connector?

 

Yes, but the cable is composed of three wires (conductors) phase, neutral and data, the last one is connected to the pin that broke on your plug/connector.

That's why I said you can buy just the connector, cut your broken one and solder the wires to the new one.

 

That would be cheap. I don't have any soldering equipment though

Ebay has some for 53 plus shipping. Might try that and hope duties don't hit me to hard.