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Inspiron 1525 won't charge
I bought my daughter a new 1525 for Christmas last year (08). 3 months out of warranty, the battery won't charge. I bought a higher amp hour battery. Thought it was charging but not. Went through several threads on the internet from LOTS of others with the same problem. They all lead to either the charger or the motherboard. I replaced the cheaper of the two and it still won't charge. I've tried the unplugging the battery and holding the power switch for 10 seconds ritual to no avail. Now after searching the internet again, I ran across someone that said change the charging board, not the motherboard. Is there a charging board or is it combined in the motherboard? Will Dell sell a refurbished board at a cheap price to someone who owns 5 Dells? I don't really want to buy a new laptop again after only one year. If it was my daughters choice, she would go with an Apple.
Kameraman
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March 25th, 2009 20:00
Is that usually what the problem is, a problem with the charging circuit on the motherboard??
What causes soooo many of these motherboards to go out?
ejn63
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March 25th, 2009 20:00
There is no charge board - it's the mainboard on this model. A refurbished replacement board is about $260 for this model:
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=4737
If you DO go with a Mac, 3-year AppleCare minimum. That $260 board for a MacBook or MacBook Pro runs $800-1,100 to replace.
kirkd
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March 26th, 2009 09:00
The I1525 and many newer laptops DO HAVE a charger board. It is a lot cheaper than a system board. Replacing the board yourself will not be difficult.
The big problem with these power connectors is that the solder connections are not heavy duty enough. If the laptop is handled carefully, you will have no problems. Things like tripping over the DC cord, will put stress on the connection and they will eventually break. This is why the power board configuration was adopted.
On my daughter's I6000, there are three electrical connections and four physical connections. All but one connection had broken because of her twins grabbing the DC cord. If the four physical connections had been more heavily soldered, the socket would not have failed.
Kameraman
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March 26th, 2009 10:00
So I guess the only way to find out if I have one or not is to take a look inside. If I don't have one, could the connections of the jack to the motherboard be re-soldered?. I'm not scared of doing that, besides, at this point the only other thing is to buy a new one or spend just as much to get it replaced!!
ejn63
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March 26th, 2009 11:00
This model does indeed have an I/O power board:
http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=item&id=5401
Replacing it may solve the problem if it's physical in nature - the charging circuitry however is part of the system board.
Kameraman
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April 5th, 2009 19:00
Well, after checking on prices for motherboards and more searching for answers online, I decided to dive into the computer. If it was going to have to be replaced anyway, what's the worst that could happen???
I pulled it apart, following the steps I found online, all the way to the I/O power board. I pulled it out first to see if there was physically something wrong with it. It looked good to the eye but I went ahead and re-soldered the connections of the power plug to the board. The first time (yes, I did all of this twice!!) I only soldered the bottom of the board. It still didn't work. The second time, I re-soldered the top of the board. The center connector is the one that tells the motherboard that the battery needs recharging. That was the pin that was not secure. After putting it all back together again, it works perfectly!! :)
I kept telling my daughter to be careful of the plug since it came out the side of the computer, not the back. After months of being tugged on, pulled and pushed, it became disconnected on the circuit board. That little board alone cost over $100.00!! All I lost today was a few hours.
Dairadai
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June 15th, 2009 15:00
Do you by any chance still have the link to those instructions, because I am currently having the same problem you had with your daughter's laptop. If you can find the link and post it here I would be most thankful.
ejn63
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June 15th, 2009 16:00
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins1526/en/SM/index.htm