AC power adapter wattage and type cannot be determined, please help...

Hi alexkharden,

Great job done on the troubleshooting, we appreciate that you’ve tried all possible steps to isolate and resolve the issue.
However, please try removing the battery and inserting on another Dell Computer and charge the battery for at-least 50%.
Once the charge is completed kindly insert the battery back on your Inspiron N4030 computer also connecting the original AC Adapter.

Turn on the computer and flash the BIOS by clicking on the link below.
http://dell.to/1dFtXxL

Type the Service tag and under Drivers and Downloads select the Operating system and select option BIOS and install the same.
NOTE: In order to flash BIOS the battery needs to be charged at least 20%.

Please try the above mentioned steps and let us know your findings.

Unfortunately, the battery for the N4030 will not fit into any of the other laptops. Is there any other way to charge the battery? The laptops we have are the N5010, N5110, N4010, N4110, N7110, and the N4030 that is currently giving me problems.

Thank you.

Edit: The battery for the N4030 is currently at 15%.

I attempted to flash the bios anyway (A07 version), even though my battery is at less than 20%. It said "Cann't flash to the same BIOS version" (misspelling included). I then downloaded a previous version (A05) bios to try to flash to it and it said "You are about to flash your bios to an older BIOS version. Dell does not recommend flashing your bios to an older version. Press OK button to exit."

I ran both flashes normally and also as an administrator. So unless there's some trick I don't know, I'm not able to flash the bios.

Hi alexkharden,

Thank you for your response and I appreciate that you tried flashing the BIOS to the latest version, you’ve also mentioned about Motherboard, Power board and battery replacement. This may happen because of faulty power board which was replaced previously. Were these parts replacements done from Dell, if yes then please provide us the Order number for the same?
You can check the hardware warranty status of your computer by clicking on the link below.
http://dell.to/1dFtXxL

Type in the Service tag and click on Warranty. If the system is under warranty, please send me the Order number or the Service tag of your computer on a private message by clicking on my username and selecting send a Private message option and provide your service tag and contact information (as mentioned below) so that I may access your system records.

System Service Tag No:
Registered System Owner's Name:
Shipping address:
Telephone number/s:
Email address: 

Let us know if this helps.

No, unfortunately my warranty expired in November. I'm left to troubleshoot this on my own. So any suggestions on how to proceed?

Hi alexkharden,

Since you’ve mentioned on your first post saying that Battery, Motherboard and Power board was replaced.
Was that replaced by Dell or was that done through a local technician or a 3rd party vendor.
If those parts were replaced through Dell we can check the Order number and let us know or you can contact the
3rd party vendor or the local technician so they can check and replace the necessary parts.

Let us know if this helps.

All of the work has been done by me, not a Dell Technician. The problem still exists, any solutions?

Hi alexkharden,

As mentioned in my previous post the Power board might be faulty and needs to be replaced and since the computer’s not in
active hardware warranty I’d suggest you to please contact the Out of Warranty team on 1-800-288-4410(US only).
You may also get in touch with a local technician who might check your computer and assist further in replacing necessary parts.

let us know if this helps.

Have done exact the same, exact same problems. thank you for asking.. lets see.

Ok, I have read through these forums, and others, and have been unable to resolve this issue after trying like a million things. Here's my issue: This is on a Dell Inspiron N4030 running Windows 8 Pro with Bios Revision A07. On boot-up I get this message: "The AC power adapter wattage and type cannot be determined. The battery may not charge. The system will adjust the performance to match the power available. Please connect a Dell 65W AC adapter or greater for the best system performance. Strike the F3 key (before F1 or F2 key) if you do not want to see this power warning message again. Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility." If I strike F2 and go into the bios it says "AC adapter type    unknown" If I strike F1 to continue boot-up it boots into windows and then the battery indicator shows "Plugged in, Not charging" In attempting to fix this issue I have: 1. Replaced the battery. 2. Replaced the motherboard 3. Replaced the Power Board 4. Swapped out the adapter with several other Dell adapters we have in the house (we have 6 Dell laptops). Adapter revisions used are A00, A01, and A02. 5. Did the whole rigamarole here: http://jeffreypalermo.com/blog/plugged-in-not-charging-windows-7-solution/ 6. Tried various combinations of plugging/unplugging at different intervals and at different speeds that I have read on multiple sites. 7. Reset the Bios by disconnecting the battery and AC adapter and the holding down the power button for 20 seconds. Someone please, please help me. Thank you everyone, Alex

Mine's a Latitude E5540 with the same problem.

Where am I supposed to find another E5540 to change the battery into? I don't know anybody who has one.

BTW: I know that my battery is entering its old age, so perhaps that enters into (or is the cause of) the problem.

Same problem here. I bought the XPS 13 9343 with I7 processor and touchscreen a year and a half ago. First i ran into WIFI problems and the as the WIFI card broke. That was replaced by Dell and I think this can happen so not a problem. Now since 2 month i got the message when i start up the laptop  "AC power adapter wattage and type cannot be determined" . I changed the battery and changed the AC adapter. This cost me pretty much extra money but with no result. Dell Company do you have any solution for this? I see many people with the same problem.

Likely the data connection for charger identification is broken. It could be due to a problem in the charger (cable, plug - central pin?) or in the laptop (power socket, MB).

While trying a new adapter was a good idea, changing the battery was not.  That's not the source of the issue.

If the adapter was OEM Dell and still not recognized, replace the DC jack next:

www.parts-people.com/index.php

If that doesn't solve it, the mainboard is bad.