Battery charging not working

The questions is:  is the system recognizing the AC adapter, or is the adapter showing "unknown".  If the system doesn't recognize the adapter, it WILL power up and run but the battery WILL NOT charge.

F2 at  powerup to check the adapter status.

And how would I know that?

The diagnostic did not indicate any such issue.   I do not get such a message.

And in any case, the adapter is a genuine Dell, so obviously it will be recognized as OK

That is not my idea.  Whenever the system doesn't recognize the AC adapter, the battery WILL NOT charge.   If you haven't yet tried a new OEM Dell adapter, that's the first thing to do.  If that doesn't get and keep the adapter recognized, replace the DC power jack in the system.  And if that fails to solve the issue, replace the mainboard.

The adapter completes a charge circuit with a center wire.  If that charge circuit is not closed, the battery WILL NOT charge, even if the adapter powers the system.

Not sure I understand you.

Since it DID charge, but NOT the way it used to, there is something different.   But the AC adapter IS a DELL unit, and the system does not complain about it.  

Diagnostics show the main board is working fine.   I am not going to replace that unless it is shown to be bad.  

Same with the AC adaptor.  It works and even charges the unit as it did today.

I am not understanding why I should replace hundreds of $$ worth of parts right now.

The big problem is that Win 7 does not seem to include the battery information that XP did.   BUT apparently it should.

So I don;t get much information about the battery or charge status.  Just the tiny icon at bottom right of screen.   Right click gets only "power options", offering different times to shut off screen.

There are many on-line suggstions about this, but all involve options that I do not have available in Win7, even though the suggestions are FOR Win 7.

From your post:

"If I forget,and plug in the charger at certain times during boot, I HAVE seen a "no recognition" message. "

It sounds like the the connection between the logic wire and mainboard is not solid.  If, at any time the adapter loses that connection, the battery will stop charging.

You can downgrade all the posts you'd like, but the problem here is that the adapter is losing connection to the mainboard intermittently, which causes charging to stop.  You need to solve that problem - once it's solved, the problem will be as well.

Sigh......

ONLY DURING STARTUP does that ever happen, when I plug in the wall plug at a certain time.

With NO OTHER CHANGE, NOT MOVING ANY WIRE, when I see that, I unplug it from the wall (not computer), and wait, then plug in again to WALL, and it charges.

Also, when it says it does not recognize the charger, it not only will not charge, it also will not boot,  but it works fine if I reboot on battery and wait longer before I plug in to the wall.   Or if I plug in first and then boot.  NEVER SEE that message if I eitehr plug in first or wait until booted to plug in.  

If I wiggled the wire, yes I would consider your statement true.

I know you are TRYING to be helpful.....

What I want to know is why does win 7 NOT SHOW the laptop battery info that it supposedly  should?

Also, in every case it STATES that it is charging, but does not charge in fact.   If the computer did not get the power on that pin it would state "plugged in NOT charging".

So, directly to the big question:

two batteries, system does charge either one.   BUT.....

Why does Win7 not have the battery monitor functions that win7 is supposed to have?   System check from Dell online says battery is working, is compatible  and all functions are good.

But I have to trick the system into charging sometimes.  

1) Unplug from wall, and wait while it works on battery for a while, then plug in and it charges (nothing else moved at all, no movement of wires or plugs)

2) remove battery, shut down.  Then hold "ON" button for 60 sec.   Then put battery in, start computer, plug in and it charges fully OK.

Remember, Dell check reports no problems.... This seems to be a software battery management issue.

IF you're certain the system makes good contact with the adapter - no warnings about unrecognized adapters, AND one battery does work and one doesn't, then the battery that doesn't work is bad.

If you have two systems and just one battery, if that battery works with one system and not the other (this is what it sounds like), then it's the charging circuit on the system where the battery WON'T charge that's bad.

If ONE battery fails to work with either system, it's the battery that's bad.  

Windows 7 can only monitor what it can read from the battery - it's very possible a third-party battery doesn't communicate with the Dell system the same way an OEM battery does.

It's also possible that one of the pins by which the battery connects to the mainboard isn't making good contact -- have you checked those?

Win 7 did not do the correct monitoring as soon as installed.   XP DID do all he monitoring up to when it was replaced wih Win7, and the same battery spanned over both OS'

A Dell battery also does not get monitored any differently from the 3rd party battery..

It is not the case that the S/W is there, but cannot monitor that one battery.   Instead, it is that there is no option seen for any sort of battery monitor, nor for the facilities that are mentioned elsewhere for Dell Precision with charging issues.

No visible problems with the contacts, the charging proceeds once the system is convinced to do it, so one must assume all is well with the hardware portion.

If the two batteries DO charge in one system but DO NOT charge in the other, it's not the battery that's faulty - it's the charge circuit on the system where the two batteries won't charge.

Or is it that you have one battery that will charge and the other won't?  If you re-read your posts, you've claimed both at different points in time.

Too bad for them.  They lose.  Not buy another Dell.   Win 7 required.

Besides win 7 works and according to the other on-line sources people use it with 6300 and have access to utilities.   Not necessarily Dell specific, but OS facilities.

It is confusing because there are two of everything....  2 computers, 2 chargers, 2 batteries.   All HAVE worked in the last couple days in all combinations tested

One battery (the 3rd party) has "pretended " not to work but worked fine later, charged up full and powered the computer for almost 4 hours run time in use. (instructions were to charge fully, then discharge until computer turns off).  It also charged after that "calibration" cycle.

The 3rd party  battery therefore  has charged, but will not now. It is a new battery, used 3 days, but not a Dell.  

Of course it pretended to be bad once before, and then charged up and gave 4 hour run time after one "reset" method was used.

A different battery (Official Dell) also has charged in this computer,  Never causes trouble so far.

NEITHER battery shows the battery utilities that should apparently be present.   ONE of them is an official Dell battery.

The supposedly bad battery acted bad to begin with, but when the reset was done, charged fine and worked.    Charge light was on, charge level increased.

So the idea that it is really bad is not such a good one, it charged AFTER seeming to be dead.

Right now, the Dell battery is charging, at least as far as I can tell from what little as far as utilities is present.  Charge level increases, charge light is on.

Dell online diagnostics says the batteries  are fine.  

The prime question is why there are no utilities  with either a DELL nor a 3rd party battery.   The utilities apparently should have added ways to do a reset and get a battery to charge if it can charge.  

The suspicion here is that something in software that should be keeping tabs on the battery and doing the charge is not present, or not working.