Battery not recognised - Laptop Inspiron 1501

Hi there,

I have a Laptop Inspiron 1501 of two years approximately.  Lately I've been before loading Windows (BIO), having a warning saying "the battery is not recognised and won't be charged, press any key to continue, etc, etc" although actually it was charging it (something I could check on the battery tester itself). Then one day it suddenly didn't turned on any more.

After trying different things (calling Dell, changing the power supply cable, etc.) I found the solution in taking the battery out, cleaning it, which allowed me to turn the computer on again. Then I downloaded all the recommended updates from Dell website and the warning problem was sorted for good. I think the battery is getting to its end but as I usually use the computer plugged in I don't thing that will be a problem for now and even thought I think the system was not recognising it properly.

I am writing this as it seems to be lots of people with the same problem and although I found lots of posts asking for advice I couldn't find one with solutions.

Hope it helps, cheers

Mercedes