XPS 18 Tablet not charging while plugged in??

I don't have anything new from my end except another couple of failures in the pile.  The newest one is still under warranty so I'll be contacting support when I get time.  Still waiting to hear about warranty extensions on some of the ones that are out of warranty.  Things move slowly at my workplace.  No luck finding anyone that can repair the boards or any info on the failure so I can repair them myself.

SBEXTRA3- The XPS has two charge paths that seem to be totally separate, one from the normal plug-in port an and one from the stand port.  It sounds like the charge circuit from your stand port has failed and it will take a motherboard swap to fix it. 

The failure I mentioned that would have been under warranty turned out to be a bad connection at the charge port to the XPS that was due to our product.  The symptoms were the same but a cable replacement and some realignment fixed it.  If I could only get the others working again...

That was an interesting comment about the negativity in the forums, I don't think we are being overly negative here, just factual and hopeful for a solution!

Well, this is awesome.  I just unboxed my new unit yesterday, and it exhibited the same behavior (plugged in but not charging in cradle).  For a device this mature, I wouldn't expect this type of issue, especially from a brand new unit.  Very frustrating...  I guess I'll have to go down the path of calling support, although it appears there is no true 'fix' for this issue.

Philengle- Did it charge from the regular charge port?  In the cradle does it detect the charger in the diagnostics?  If not make sure the plug is pushed all the way into the cradle.  If the battery is at 0% it may take it a few tries to start charging it. you may see it charge briefly at a very low current in the diags, like 120mA.  Eventually it should take off at 1.5 Amps or more.

These should ship in "shipping mode" which is to prevent it from turning on in the box.  I have pulled them out with dead batteries before so maybe they don't always get set to "shipping mode".  I would like to know how to set them back to shipping mode if anyone knows.  If the battery has been dead for a while, they don't charge right away when plugged in.  It checks the battery to make sure it not damaged or failed before cranking up the current.

X-RAY TECH, It will charge from the regular port.  I have charged if fully that way, and then reconnected the power supply to the cradle.  The light at the front of the cradle comes on, and the battery icon in the desktop reports 'plugged in; not charging'.  The battery slowly drains unless I plug the power supply back into the regular charge port.

I'm not sure about the diagnostics you're referring to.  If you can explain how to access and run, I'd like to validate that info too.

Thanks for the feedback and suggestions!

To get into the diagnostics you can either connect a keyboard and hit F12 repeatedly after power up then select the diagnostics from the list, or without a keyboard just hold the volume up button and turn the tablet on.  You can then stop the diagnostic tests that run automatically and can see the charging status and whether the charger is being detected properly.  It is possible you have a bad cradle/stand, or it could be the charge port that connects to the stand is bad.  .  It would be interesting to know if it detects the 65W power supply on the stand, I'd guess it does not.  Note:  The light will light even if the plug is not fully seated.  If the plug is even slightly out it may not detect the type of charger and will not charge but will run off of the charger.  It will show zero for the charge rate.  Make certain the plug is all the way in.  There are 3 connections from the charger, an outer and inner barrel and a center pin.  All 3 must make good contact, and they all have to connect through the row of pins on the stand.  It sounds like you have used it enough that it isn't just a problem seating the plug or getting the unit docked to the stand.  If you have access to another cradle/stand, that would be helpful to eliminate the stand as the cause.  Or maybe you can just return it?

Ok, ran the diagnostics.  As others have reported, when in the cradle, the power supply is noted as 'unknown'.  As suggested, I have insured that the power supply is fully seated in the cradle.  Looks like I need to find a long window to call Dell support.  I will not be satisfied with a service call.  This is brand new, and needs to be replaced with a new PC, or it needs to simply go back.  I'm trying to return to Dell after many frustrations with HP; this doesn't seem any better...

Sorry to hear your plight, but I had a similar experience. After calls to Dell support in India and long telephone conversations with the agents, I was sent a brand new unit to replace the defective one. It took about a week and a half to get the new unit home. So far it seems to work fine, as to the stand power defect. However, I have noticed a glitch affecting the monitor brightness. It seems to fluctuate in brightness level once in a while for no reason at all. I am pretty good around hardware/software issues, having dealt with these fields for many years and I have not been able to correct the brightness fluctuation issue, even after resetting all possible options dealing with the monitor components.

Anyway, it seems a shame that after so many reported problems with the power supply and optional stand, new units are still going out with the same issue. You would think that by now Dell would have corrected the problem.

Good luck and make sure that you email Dell support demanding a NEW unit with expedited shipping. Other wise, the wait gets even longer.

Dell will take care of you but the support folks can't do anything about a design fault.  It is surprising that they don't seem to know about the problem, but in the big picture it may be a small % of the XPS systems that have problems.  It seems like a bigger problem to me, but we have a lot of these in the field, literally in pastures and barns.  Support is support and it is often a pain in the behind.  I find a support chat to be superior to using the phone, but then I am somewhat hearing impaired so it works better.  Chats eliminate the accents/voice quality issues and give you a log of what was said and agreed to by both parties.  For many failures you can even get parts dispatched online with just a self-test failure code- how cool is that?  Dead DVD drive?  Just enter the code and wait for the part!

HP on the other hand has completely stopped talking to us about an in-warranty system failure.  That system has been out of service since October and HP will no longer return calls or emails about it!  It's only one computer, but to completely blow off a warranty repair?  Inexcusable.  In all fairness I am now out of the loop on that one, but the carcass is still in my work area.

Just got mine today.. Exact same issue.  Side charging port works but base charging port does not.

Wish I would have ran into this post before I bought and I would have told them to shove it where the sun don't shine.  Unacceptable that Dell chooses to continue to sell a product with a known manufacturers defect.

I'm going to forward your post to my tech contact as well.

Please convey to your tech support that there are numerous people with the same issue. Maybe we'll get some traction on this.

Sorry to hear you're going through the same issues as I. I forwarded your post to my tech contact to remind him this is not an isolated issue. As I posted above, has "forwarded my case to Engineering". 

When you contact tech support, please remind them that this is a known issue and link them these posts.

He replied and said for me to expect to hear back in a day or two.

If you get a new system....which I would recommend, if only to hopefully get some attention from a bean counter that this system is getting returned at an exceptional rate and it needs to be looked at.

I suspect the new system, as mine did, will have the same issue and then you have to decide if you want to fight the fight, or return the new one as well and move on.

I'll update as I go along.

I spent my time last night on a support call.  They are replacing my unit with a brand new one, but I'm not sure how hopeful I am that it will address the issue.  I have forwarded this thread to my support contact.

Please let us know how it works out. My new unit is exactly the same. Now, both of my units were made at early 2014 and mid 2014 respectively. At least that's what the Dell software reports. Maybe there's some new inventory that the problem has been remedied. If so, that would be good information as well. And I'll keep swapping until they get it right. 

After forwarding the three new customer issues posted here to my tech contact, he thanked me and said he's still waiting to hear from engineering. Not sure he's pushing everything I'm sending him or he's just appeasing me by answering and waiting to hear from "Engineering".

However, if I keep a bug in his ear and the rest of us tell our respective tech support people, maybe this will become an issue they'll finally address.