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Faulty AC Charger
Hi just wanted to know if people can confirm something for me:
I have an Inspiron 6400 which has served me well but about 8months ago I started having issues with the battery and charger. I suspected that the battery was on its way out after years or faithful service and indeed it did eventually not hold any charge at all. On replacing the battery I discovered that the charger was also broken. I confirmed this by using a friend's charger. I've got to admit I don't think the design of the charger is very good but it did at least last me a good while. Unfortunately on buying a replacement charger I found that the connection quickly became a bit temperamental and so the laptop would only charge in certain positions. II could see that the wires were fraying and so was tempted to resolder the cord myself as I am confident the main body of the charger still works. However I read the following on a forum:
Dell chargers have a third wire (the central one). This connects DIRECTLY to the data pin of a memory chip in the charger. The memory chip stores an identification code that identifies the charger as made by Dell.
The BIOS in your Dell computer checks for the presence of this code. If it doesn't see it, it disables the ability to recharge your battery. You can have a perfectly good charger delivering perfect DC current, but if the laptop doesn't see the secret `made by DELL' code on the data wire, it punishes you for not using a Dell charger by refusing to charge your laptop battery.
To make matters worse, the inside of a charger is not a very hospitable place for a memory chip. They tend not to live long in such hot places. And connecting the data pin of a memory chip directly to an external wire is just lousy design. All you need is a single static spark to hit the data wire and zap - you've fried the memory chip with the Dell secret code. If the memory chip dies, your laptop won't recognise that the charger is made by Dell any more and will refuse to charge your laptop.
If you complain to Dell about this, they won't tell you the true nature of the problem. They'll just try to sell you a new charger