Charger light goes off when I plug it into the laptop

[cjbrown815]

Hi,

I bought a Inspiron 15r (N5010) last feburary and now I think the powesupply went out. I plug the charger into the wall and the light is on, when I plug the other end into the pc the light on the charger goes off, I've tried this with two different chargers and they both behave the same. No response form the pc with either charger. The second charger I used I know works, so I figure it must be the power supply, if thats true, where do I get one? Help please and thanks

[MicroTest]

If you have tried two different power supplies and both behave the same (charger light goes off) when plugging into the laptop then it's more likely something is wrong with the mainboard or any other device that is connected to it (short circuit).If you have easy access to CDrom drive,hard drive and memory modules disconnect/remove them but I won't give you  much hope:mainboard,screen or power jack are usually the parts that produce such a "massive" short circuit.

If you are still under warranty call Tech support

[dr.wierdo]

I have similar problem with my Vostro 1320. Actually, my lcd was blinking so I disassembled the unit and reseat the LCD. When i turned it on, the LCD worked. But then after sometime the notebook turned off because the battery was empty. I noticed that the led in the charger was not on. So, I reconnected the charger to the mains and then inserted the charger into the laptop. As soon as I inserted the charger into the laptop the led again turned off...thinking this to be a problem of the charger, I used my sister's charger...but the same problem occurred. Thinking this to be due to short-circuit, I again disassembled the unit and reseat everything...but to no avail.... Since, this all started with the problem in the display unit, so I thought it to be responsible for the short-circuit...I then disconnected the display unit from the board and plugged in the charger...but the problem persisted... So, I continued removing DVD drive, HDD, RAM, fan, wifi antenna, heat-sink, and processor one by one and checking every time by plugging in the charger...but the problem wasn't solved. With just the motherboard and removing all the peripherals, the problem persisted. So, I think the problem is with the motherboard right??? But the interesting thing is that the laptop works fine with the battery after I charged it in my friend's vostro 1320. If the motherboard is working fine with the battery means that vital parts of the mobo are good, isn't it?? What do I do next?

[MicroTest]

The power jack of the laptop seems to be a separate part.Disconnect it and test the power adapter with the cable alone.

[dr.wierdo]

Yeah, I too thought that and checked with the power cable alone....and the led doesn't go off with the power cable alone...so its alright...

[dr.wierdo]

Any other suggestion....??

[ejn63]

It's still possible that the power jack is the problem -- and at $20 or so it's less expensive to try replacing than the other possible fault - the mainboard.  If you're certain the power jack is OK, then the mainboard is the faulty part.

[dr.wierdo]

Ok...i'll try to replace it with one from my N4010 and see if that will solve the problem...I will let you know....

[dr.wierdo]

The connector are of different types...it doesn't fit...is there any way to determine if its really the power cord before deciding to invest $20....

[MicroTest]

Use a simple continuity tester.None of the 3 wires should be connected to each other but it looks like that the problem is the mainboard.You already did a great job by disconnecting HDD,cdrom etc to try narrowing down the problem and before you decide to buy a new mainboard you may want to take it out again and ask some electronic guy to simply test a couple of parts.This procedure is done in less than a minute (again using a simple continuity tester)and who knows - you might hit the jackpot emoticon.BigSmile.title

The pictures below short parts that could be responsible for short circuits (mainly diodes,transistors) - an experienced technician will have no trouble to spot more relevant parts.Won't give you much hope but I'd hate to lose a mainboard because of a "stupid" short circuit.