XPS M170 Battery wont keep charge

I have a problem with my XPS M170 as my battery won't keep a charge. I thought it was a problem with my battery, so I bought a new battery for my laptop and that battery wont keep a charge either. I can only be on my laptop when I have the power brick plugged into my laptop. I wonder if it could be the connection where the power plugs into my computer as that connection seems to be slightly loose. If so, how could I fix this?

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Brian

 

I'll take a stab at this one. I'm not sure if the AC connector has a second 'stage' where if it doesn't make complete contact it wont charge the battery. The fact that you can run it on AC leads me to believe that it is most likely your replacement battery. Did you purchase an aftermarket battery or Dell OEM battery? If Dell OEM, have them replace it. If aftermarket, can you exchange it?

If you know anyone else with a M170, you might want to try their AC Adapter and battery with your system. This would rule out the connector.

Not sure of any way you can test the connector on your own.

Could be any of the four... motherboard, power jack, ac adapter, battery.

If you end up hunting down parts, try this seller:

Motherboard:
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=4097

Battery:
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=6127
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=3865

AC Adapter:
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=298

Power Jack (will have to solder it):
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=3142

 

i dont think that computer is worth dumping that much money into it. buy a newer one.

 

I still own that laptop, gave it to my mom. I would not spend more then 100.00 to fix it cause it is not fast enough for modern things at least compared to core 2 duo equipped machines.

 

Thanks for the info, the battery I purchased off ebay. It's brand new, but an aftermarket battery. When I first bought it, it had a charge on it, and I thought it worked fine, up until I used my laptop on just its battery. Once the juice ran out, the battery was dead and wouldn't charge.

This sucks because I don't know anyone else with an M170, so I have no way of testing it. I'm trying to figure out what would be the cheapest way around this. I'm going to try to keep my laptop as much as possible, I don't really do any hardcore gaming on it anymore and it pretty much turned into specifically an internet computer. So it still has a few more years of life in it.

Brian

 

Understood. I tend to stay away from aftermarket batteries as they are poor quality. I suggest grabbing an OEM if you can afford it since its kind of pointless to pop 25 bones for a power jack connector if its not the cause. My guess is the battery.