e1505 will not charge and needs new battery

I just received a hand-me-down laptop from a family member, a Dell Inspiron E1505. The first thing I did was upgrade the RAM to 2Gb since I had some spare sticks from when I upgraded my wife's laptop a few months back. However, before I can really use the laptop I need to sort out a couple issues.

1. Upon boot I get an error message stating "The AC power adapter cannot be determined. Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge." I believe this means I need to get a new AC adapter.

2. The Battery Health states that the battery "can no longer provide sufficient power to my system and needs to be replaced." I have not tested how long the battery will last, but I have no doubt that a 3 year old system could use a new battery so that is on my list of upgrades.

3. The two screws that hold the HDD in place are missing. Where can I get new screws? or what size screw will fit so I can go down to the hardware store and try to find one.

Now, I went to Dell's website and they have an adapter for $66 and a new battery for $136, but I'd rather not spend that much. Is there anywhere I can get a less expensive battery and AC adapter that is not junk?

 

How about these? They seem to have good reviews on Amazon and be reasonably priced.

battery: Amazon.com: 11.10V,6600Mah,Li-Ion, Replacement Laptop Battery For Dell Inspiron 1501, Inspiron 6400, Inspiron E1505…

AC adapter: Amazon.com: OEM Dell Ac Adapter Laptop Charger for Dell INSPIRON ,Dell XPS ,Dell Studio, Dell…

Does anyone have any experience with these batteries or adapters?

 

"AC adapter not recognized" is somewhat of a notorious error... it can be an issue with the power brick itself, an issue with the connection between the AC adapter and the motherboard, or an issue with the motherboard itself.

I think you should try to find a known-good adapter and see if it solves the "AC adapter not recognized" issue. If it doesn't, and you've thus got a problem on the laptop end, it might not be worthwhile to replace the board.

If it does solve the problem, you can find plenty of genuine adapters for $20 to $30 on eBay, and these are generally trustworthy (make sure they're genuine and not generic).

Batteries are a bit more of a crapshot... you should probably try to find genuine batteries on eBay, but sometimes generics will work pretty well, too. I'd say check up on the status of your current battery once you fix the AC issue (if you do); maybe it still holds enough charge such that you don't need to replace it.

 

I don't really have access to a known good adapter so unfortunately I'll have to try and order one. The adapter I linked from Amazon is supposed to be OEM so I think I'll give it a try as it's half the price of one direct from Dell.

 

The AC adapter should be here today, but unfortunately I have to work late so I may not get to try it out. I'll report back my findings.

 

I just booted up the laptop with the new power adatper, entering the BIOS to edit the setting to display AC adapter warnings again. No warning during post and I didn't see anything once Windows booted either. I did check and the battery still says that It cannot provide sufficient power, but it at least now shows 100% charge instead of being stuck at 90%.

Is there a timer program I can use to easily tell my battery life? I'd like to time how long it lasts before making the decision to order a new battery just yet.

Next step: Install Win 7 instead of Vista.


Edit: nevermind, I just unplugged the laptop and it went to sleep right away. I guess I do need a battery.

 

Which battery would be best?

Genuine 9 Cell Dell Vostro 1000 Inspiron 6400 Battery - eBay (item 170508341218 end time Aug-01-10 22:34:39 PDT)

DELL INSPIRON 6400 GENUINE OEM ORIGINAL BATTERY 85WH - eBay (item 220490765937 end time Aug-01-10 18:35:30 PDT)

Amazon.com: 11.10V,6600Mah,Li-Ion, Replacement Laptop Battery For Dell Inspiron 1501, Inspiron 6400, Inspiron E1505…

I'm leaning towards the one from Amazon. The price is right, the seller has good ratings, I have Prime and it'll be a much easier exchange/return if necessary.

 

I'd get one of the 2 you listed from eBay, as they are listed as original, not replacements.

 

eBay "original != manufacturer "original"

maybe sometimes, but it's at best 50/50.

 

I was leaning towards the one that says Dell OEM.

 

Ok, so the $80 one? Most of the ones on eBay are coming from china...

I'll have to see if I can find one that says OEM for less

 

You should check Dell.com. They'll be genuine and expensive. Probably $115 or so.

 

Really, wow! I never would have checked Dell for a battery for a Dell laptop, that's the first place I looked and FYI the 6 cell is $136, 9 cell is $156. Why on earth would you recommend spending more, when I've already clearly stated I wanted to spend less than $80.

Go be a moron elsewhere...

 

Being rude and sarcastic won't get you far on this forum my friend... I obviously wasn't trying to be a moron you idiot. I don't spend hours racking up 700+ posts and 3 rep points trying to be a moron. You are n00b my friend, FYI, on this forum we don't call names

I missed that about under $80 I was just making sure you had checked Dell.

So, chill out dude, or go be a moron somewhere else.

 

I was a bit harsh in my last post and for that I apologize.

 

What software/drivers do I need to install for the front audio buttons to work? I installed Win 7 Pro 32bit and have everything else up and running so far.

 

Installing Windows 7 is not recommended for the E1505/6400 models unless you are equipped with either the 128mb ATI Mobility Radeon X1400 or 128mb Nvidia GeForce Go 7300. The 64mb ATI Mobility Radeon X1300 is insufficient and Intel GMA 950, uses shared memory from the main computer memory and therefore slow your system down. As for the front control buttons, you have to go to the Dell Drivers website to see if there is the drivers for Windows 7. If not, the Vista drivers should work.

Dell XPS m1530 - C2D T5250 1.5ghz, 4gb DDR-2 667, 15.4 CCFL LCD WXGA+ with TrueLife, 128mb Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS, WD Scorpio Blue 250gb, 2.0mb webcam, Windows Vista Business SP 2 32bit.
Dell Inspiron E1505 - C2D T2050 1.6ghz, gb DDR-2 533, 15.4 CCFL WXGA, 64mb ATI Mobility Radeon X1300, Toshiba MK1032GSX 100gb, Windows XP Home Edition SP3 32bit.

 

I just checked the Dell website. They do not list Windows 7 drivers for this model. So if you have missing drivers and functions, you will have to hunt them down by device.

Dell XPS m1530 - C2D T5250 1.5ghz, 4gb DDR-2 667, 15.4 CCFL LCD WXGA+ with TrueLife, 128mb Nvidia GeForce 8400M GS, WD Scorpio Blue 250gb, 2.0mb webcam, Windows Vista Business SP 2 32bit.
Dell Inspiron E1505 - C2D T2050 1.6ghz, gb DDR-2 533, 15.4 CCFL WXGA, 64mb ATI Mobility Radeon X1300, Toshiba MK1032GSX 100gb, Windows XP Home Edition SP3 32bit.

 

No problems whatsoever running Win 7 Pro on it with the ATI x1300.

Just because Dell doesn't list drivers does not mean you cannot run Win 7 on this machine. Dell wants to sell you a newer laptop instead of provide service for a system that is a few years old and out of warranty.

Besides, Win 7 has better memory management than Vista so the laptop actually runs faster on Win 7 than it ever did on Vista... so it was an upgrade IMHO. Yes, the buttons along the front for media do not work, but chances are I wouldn't use them anyway.


I still do need to get a battery though...

 

when installing a new battery after running a bad battery for several months/year is it normal to get estimated charge and usage times that are all over the place the first few times you use the laptop?

I ordered an OEM Dell battery from Amazon and seem to be getting a little under 2 hours of usage, but the gauge fluctuates all over the place.

 

Yes. The OS needs calibrate the battery meter to figure out what the top and bottom end of your new battery are. If your usage patterns change as its calibrating, it will still get the full and empty charge levels right, but the discharge rate and estimated time to depletion will swing wildly. That doesn't mean you should do full charge/discharge cycles though. Just keep using it and the estimated life should stabilize.