Laptop Charger Question

Let me preface this by saying that I'm sure the problem I am having is an outgrowth of my own laziness, but here goes the details: My girlfriend and I both have Dell laptops. She has an Inspiron, and I have a Latitude. The batteries in the two computers are different, and so are the chargers. I have a 90W Adapter, and she has a 65W Adapter. Well, we would be sitting around and may laptop would be about to go dead and I would use her charger. My computer would charge fine, just at a slightly slower rate. She would, at other times, do the vice versa with mine, and hers would charge just fine. Eventually though, her charger stopped charging her laptop. When it was connected, it would run the laptop on AC power, but would not actually charge the battery itself. It did this for a while – and my charger would charge her battery – and then suddenly it started working again. Well, the following day, in a bout of laziness, I used her charger, and it charged my laptop just fine. Then later on I tried to use my charger, and it would not charge the battery, and it would just run it off of AC power. Several days later, it is still doing this. When I boot my computer with the charger plugged in, it tells me that my system performance will suffer, and that I need to insert a charger of 90W or higher. Of course, the charger I have in the laptop is a 90W charger, and is the charger that came with the laptop. What can I do to fix this?

Hello pholley,

We are glad to see you returning to WhatTheTech.

Sorry you are having problems with your chargers on your respective computers. Yes, unfortunately I agree one has to be careful making sure you use your own charger for keeping your Dell Laptop batteries up to scratch. Most likely the damage is done, so a new battery for each and a strict regime to only use the correct charger is in order…………I keep my laptop plugged in permanently when home or even when away the battery does not go flat unless I choose to drain it and recharge which is advised once a month with my machine.

I see you have posted another HJT log on the correct forum and Enigma Chick has responded to it. You are lucky that it as been answered so quickly. However please be patient as the forum is very busy with all volunteers working to their maximum to clear the logs requested for analyzing.

I did notice you posted an earlier log in 6 September 2006 and did not complete the work with mschroe919 who was assisting you.

All the accredited Malware Experts are volunteers, so please make sure you respond to your log posted today when Enigma Chick assists you further with your current log. There is unseen research to answer all logs and major time given by the volunteer to assist you.

Thanks again for coming back to the forum.

kind regards,

Hmm. I was afraid of that. Exactly why does that happen, though? My girlfriend's charger did it for a while, but then it worked fine. Is there any possibility that this could happen with mine, or is this a pipe dream? Thanks in advance for the reply.

Hmm. I was afraid of that. Exactly why does that happen, though?

My girlfriend's charger did it for a while, but then it worked fine. Is there any possibility that this could happen with mine, or is this a pipe dream?

Thanks in advance for the reply.

Hi pholley,

With respect it happens because you were not careful to use your own charger - plain and simple fact that a charger is for one item only and I think you will read on the charger and or the computer that fact.

I would take both computer and chargers to your local IT business in your town or city and have the batteries tested. Tell the IT just what you have told me and I am sure they will advise you further.

This is really a hands on situation for you to further research.

kind regards,

You can check this website for more information. It helped me with my laptop charger.

I would fear the battery needs replacing as well, and it's quite simply you put too much power into the battery by using a power supply that was rated higher than what the system could safely handle, that said battery's are funny things and can get you going round in circles if they play up lol, but you should NEVER supply power greater than what a unit specifies, and it goes way deeper than just killing the battery sooner than it would normally. There are videos online showing what happens when a laptop battery goes bad, they can not only catch fire, they can literally explode as well, and thats as bad as it gets, imagine going to bed leaving it plugged in overnight, doesn't bare thinking about, so NEVER use electrical power that is not made for the device, it could cost you dearly. Now that all said, if you are able to borrow a correctly rated charger for the laptop from a friend or something, then just see if that works, probably wont, but if you can borrow a suitable charger then it could save you money, and it costs nothing to try, as to doing the same using a supply under the power rating required, I doubt it would do any damage, because it's simply not man enough to pump that kind of power into it that could cause such damage, I don't suggest it's right or safe to do this, or that nothing "could" happen, but it's a much lesser risk than putting too much power into it can do. As to the actual usage regime, there will be varied opinions on that, some very possibly stand out more than others possibly due to each different country's power etc, I agree with tallin that the battery should be flattened once a month (or more if you like), then fully recharged again, interim charging can be as little or as much as required, but flattening and recharging fully is a highly regarded way to maintain the condition of the battery, and it helps extend it's life doing this. But I have to disagree with leaving the charger on full time with the battery in, not without knowing more detail, I appreciate modern battery's can take a lot more punishment than the old style battery's, but the last I knew it was recommended to remove the battery if in constant mains use, again this was supposed to extend it's life, it is quite possible this is reversed these days, I am not as up on the latest news as I would normally be, but this is what I last knew to be the suggested best practise, but I'd be Happy to be corrected if things have changed since I last knew.