D600 A06 BIOS Update - battery not charging

Question

There seems to be a bug in the A06 BIOS update for the Latitude D600. The power supply that shipped with the machine is Model AA22850 for the PA-12 family. This power supply charged the battery fine when I received the computer. I updated the BIOS recently to A06 version and then started receiving a BIOS error upon boot up saying that it did not recognize the power supply. I replied to the error message and went into the BIOS setup and sure enough the battery status was not showing as charging. There green charging LED no longer was lit up and upon going into Windows and looking in the Power options in control panel the battery was not showing charging as well.

We happened to have a power supply for a Latitude D800 at the office and I plugged it in and it started charging the battery immediately. I also did not receive a BIOS error on boot either. That power supply is for the PA-10 family and has more current output. Evidently this new A06 BIOS is looking for that power supply. So....I have to get a larger power supply to have my system now charge. Dell engineers...are you listening!!!!

DELL-Corey · Answer

The A06 BIOS update for the Latitude D600 seems to have a bug that prevents the battery from charging. After updating to A06, the BIOS does not recognize the power supply and the battery status does not show as charging. The user tried using a power supply for a Latitude D800, which worked and did not give a BIOS error. The user suggests that the A06 BIOS is looking for a power supply from the PA-10 family. The suggested solution is to reflash the BIOS to A06 again.

gacajun · Answer

Thanks for the reply....I tried reflashing the BIOS and still had the same problem.  I have a service plan with Dell and they diagnosed it as a bad battery and sent me a new one...that did not cure it.  The technician was at my office again yesterday and changed out the motherboard and that did not cure it either.  As a hunch the technician asked is we had any other power supplies around and a coworker had the power supply shipped with the Latitude D800 and when I plugged my D600 into it the battery started charging.  When I unplugged it from the D800 supply and plugged in the one that was shipped with my D600 it stopped charging.  There is definitely a bug in the BIOS code.

DELL-Corey · Answer

gacajun, It sounds to me like the problem could be the AC adaptor itself.

gacajun · Answer

The original battery charger is putting out 19.5 volts according to my digital voltmeter and it powers the computer just fine...it just does not charge the batteries.  I guess a good question to ask at this point is does the computer know or can sense somehow the type of battery charger that is hooked to it.  The charger for the D800 has a higher current output than the one shipped with the D600 and the charger for the D800 charges the battery.  Both chargers have the same voltage output so somehow the computer is sensing something different in the chargers.  Is there some current sensing mechanism in the computer that would sense that the current drawn by the computer from the charger is not sufficient to charge the batteries?

genetics · Answer

I'm experiencing a similar problem.  I've had my d600 for about six weeks, and I have never seen the AC adaptor charge the primary battery ... but the docking station I purchased with the computer charges it rapidly, so I know the battery can be charged.  My AC adaptor model is HP-OQ065B83.  Today I downloaded and successfully installed the A06 BIOS update, but the charge indicator light is stubbornly dim (even when the computer isn't working hard), and the control panel says the batter is'ON LINE,' but not charging.  At one point the computer failed to recognize the AC adaptor type upon boot-up, but I ignored the messages since it powered the computer.  There appears to be a communication problem between the adaptor and the battery.  Any new ideas?

DELL-Corey · Answer

genetics/gacajun/all,

If you are having this issue with the D600, please send me the effected computer’s service tag, and a description of your particular experience with the issue, via private message.

jalexan5 · Answer

Yea, i'm haveing the same problem, I had the bios alert and now not only won't it charge the battery but it doesn't even notice it's there, i'm almost certain this is a problem with the bios. Can't figure out what to do, have been meaning to bring it to the it people here at school but haven't had time yet, do know that others who bought the same laptop seem to have the problem as well.

genetics · Answer

Dell replaced my AC adapter, and the new one worked fine for about a month.  The same problem cropped up again, so they replaced it a second time.  This third adaptor has been good for a few months now.

PortableBIOSGuy · Answer

The BIOS does indeed have a way to tell what power supply is connected.  It sounds like that mechanism is failing in the power supply.

BilalHussain114 · Answer

hello ...

can u tell me how to update Dell d600 bios from A16 to A06???

i try it to download from some websites ...but when i download and run it .. it say your batter and ac power is not plug -in if u have the solution plz tell me

MY DELL D600 SPEC:

Intel Pentium M 1.60 Ghz

ATI Radeon 9000 32mb Graphics

512 mb RAM

40 GB Hard drive

Locked Topics – Laptops General

D600 A06 BIOS Update - battery not charging

Was this post helpful?