My Dell Inspiron 5160 won't turn on.?

Question

My laptop wouldn’t start the other day. It's 3 years old. The battery got 25 min to a 100% charge (used to be 4 hrs) , so I thought the battery was the culprit. Bought a new one, put it in and my laptop started right up. However, I could not get the AC to hook up to the back. I have had difficulty for about a year now with that stupid connector..twisting and turning it etc.. So it will finally connect and charge.

My question is: do those connector pieces you hook up to your laptop to charge it get "stripped" i.e. do you sometimes need to get a new one?

Also- my laptop said 30 min (16%) remaining, and when I was fidgeting with the power chord to charge it, my laptop spontaneously shut off. No pop-up saying "low battery" etc.. It just shut off. Now it won't turm back on. I am not sure if I should buy a new charger or send it to geek squad to look at the connection.

If you have any ideas, especially in view of the fact the connector sucks, I would appreciate it.

Answer 1

I have a 5150, well had two actually which is how I found this info (neighbors laptop did the same thing). They are under warranty again.

http://www.lieffcabraser.com/dell-inspiron.htm

Talk to a dell technician, and keep trying to get it fixed under warranty, since it should be reinstated until Sept 30/2007.

Good luck, post back here with results. I got two fixed, even though they were one 5160 and one 5150. However, they shipped one back to where I used to work years ago, so make sure they have your current information at the end of the call.

EDIT: more info
There is a circuit on the mainboard ($400+ from dell) that checks to see if a genuine battery and charger are installed. It's too close to the CPU and fails from heat or poor connector design. If it can't sense the proper adapter, it won't charge. If you had a way of charging the battery, you would likely find that your laptop still works. It's not something you can easily fix yourself, plus the chip is proprietary. Really dumb design, but I guess it's meant to keep your battery from starting on fire, and lining dell's pockets by sales of only their chargers. It took 4 days to get them back. I had to do one at a time. Took about two hours on the phone, and 4 phone calls.

I tried 3 power bricks, two dell, one targus car adapter.

Answer 2

Well, you have one of the notebooks that is prone to power supply problems. And also you may have just ruined the connector. Your battery is fine though. From the sounds of your knowledge, you'll probably want Geek Squad to take a look at it, and have them suggest what to do. I wouldn't replace that pc, because it is still fairly modern.

If you bought this:
http://cgi.ebay.com/DC-Jack-for-Dell-Inspiron-500M-600M-5160-6000-8500-9200_W0QQitemZ110125345954QQihZ001QQcategoryZ31534QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
It might fix it, but you'd have to open up your laptop and do some soldering.

Answer 3

The connectors do go bad over time. Unfortunately, as they are part of the system board, you can not replace just the connector. New system board will set you back $250-300 before labor.

Answer 4

First don't twist the power cord, you can pull the wires out of the plug. Second, it sounds like your cord already has a short in it, which you computer could see as a serge and shut down to try and save itself. Try getting a new power brick first then if it still does not work take in it to get looked at.

Answer 5

it is likley that u fried your mother board when u were messing with the power, especially if u have a defunct connection with ur power adapter. u might have to get a new laptop.

Answer 6

maybe its not the connector. maybe its the plug of the connector..