Dell Inspiron 6000 Laptop Shuts down When Unplugged from AC Power

Having some issues with a Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop. My cat decided the power cord looked like something he wanted to bite, and the laptop immediately shut down. I was able to restart it, but ever since then, I cannot run on the battery (which was just fine, before, charged to 100%, not on the recall list). Now, the recharge light does not light, and the battery is VERY slowly showing less and less of a charge. And, if I unplug the laptop from the ac power cord (a new one, not the bitten one), the laptop shuts off completely. I figure something may have gotten zapped on the motherboard, or more hopefully, the BIOS got messed up. I had read about possibly trying to re-flash the BIOS, but have lost the really great step by step instructions. Two questions: Is there a way diagnose the issue (running Vista Ultimate) and also, anyone have a link to re-flashing the BIOS that is very descriptive? Or any other thoughts on why I cannot run on battery??

Patty

 

Could have been a big charge go through the battery and destroy it? :S dunno, possibly try a new battery..

 

Hmm, this sounds perplexing. The charger could have fried the charging circuit on the motherboard, or hopefully just killed the battery. Do the test lights work on the battery?

-J.B.

 

I think this is somewhat of a common issue with the older Dell laptops, but I can't find the thread on the Dell laptop forum (the forum is being worked on, so I can't post anything new right now). Not sure where to find the test lights for the battery?? I can check that, but oddly, the battery isn't being drained as fast as it would be if I had NO AC charge. I'm down to 60%, and that's taken months to get down from 99%. A very odd, perplexing problem.

Patty

 

I had the exact same problem. My cat chewed on a 2 month old adapter I bought for my inspiron 6000 and now it only works if it is plugged in. It is an older laptop so I am going to try a new battery and see what happens.

 

Their are more than 2 wires in the ac adaptor. Their should be three or maybe more.
What it sounds like is your cat chewed through one of the two wires used for charging. If one of these wires fails, the battery will not charge. It will only run ac power. I am pretty sure your battery isnt effected at all. You should just replace the power adaptor

K-TRON

 

i think its a short circuit or something... try buying a new adapter or battery..

 

But he has bought a new one and he aint using the one that's broken/the one that got bitten