PC not recognizing AC adapter although it is working well.

I've had the same problem on my Inspiron 3521, with the computer displaying "Plugged in, not charging". I went to the BIOS, and checked like suggested, and my AC Adapter displayed "unknown". THat genuinely got me worried, but I don't have access to another Adapter, so I wiggled the connection and it suddenly went to "65W". I'm thinking my Power Port is bugging, so how do I get it replaced? My laptop is under extended warranty.

You are lucky your PC is under warranty. Change it! I had the same problem, first I replaced the adapter for a 90w one, for some time everything was ok, then, the laptop stop working. Nothing to do about it. That error means that there is a problem with the motherboard.

Is the battery being charged at a good rate while the laptop is running? Is the CPU running at full speed? Check these with BattStat and CPU-Z or other core speed utility.

I'm having the same issue in my Inspiron n5010.....I'm having the 65w adapter only...When i go to the bios it is showing the AC Adapter is unknown. it is happened when i remove my battery after shutdown and put the battery back and restarted again...This was not showing before..i'm using this laptop from past 4 years....please help me.. and it'll not charge above 80%....it is telling to replace my battery...

I have the same problem on my XPS13 9343.

It's new and my BIOS can't regonize the charger (it says : unknown). And inside windows, it says {plugged in, not charging}. My battery is good and the computer can work well, just no charging, so I can't take it out with me. Is A05 the lastest version of BIOS? Please give me a solution. 

I have a Dell laptop Inspiron 17R and I have a 65w ac adapter that came with the laptop but it is not juicing up my laptop.  It is stuck at 52%.  I get an error message that says computer cannot determine the adapter.  What is happening here.  The ac adapter light is on.  What to do next?

The supply sends a signal to the laptop identifying the charger to the laptop. If this signal is absent, the laptop will NOT charge while the laptop is also on and running. The signal can be absent if the "thin" signal wire is broken in the cord, the wire is bent in the power plug (it's the thin central wire), or if the laptop DC socket is damaged (connection to the system board or power board is bad). All of these occur rather frequently. Problems mostly due to rough handling of the power cord or the laptop if the supply is plugged in. I have seen all of these, and they were ALL due to improper handling. If a replacement supply doesn't help, the system of power board needs to be replaced.

This can also happen with third party chargers that do not handle the ID signal correctly.

Hi Vikram, 

I too have the same problem , my laptop is showing AC power adapter not determined message. I am done connecting /reconnecting the battery  but nothing works . Kindly help me with this matter.

This happened to me with Dell Inspiron 15z  laptop running windows 8.  I thought it was the power cord so I bought a new one from Dell.  Same problem. I updated to windows 8.1 and the problem went away.  Updated again to windows 10 and all was good until I downloaded the windows 8 start menu from Iobit.  It's the program that lets you get your computer looking like the old windows 7 desktop, with icons and the old familiar globe at the bottom left hand corner of the taskbar.   AC adapter error started back up again.  I made the connection in my head about it coinciding with the download.  I uninstalled it and problem now resolved.  Weird thing is that in windows 8.1 with the downloaded iobit smart menu 8, I had no problems.  It was just on windows 8 and windows 10.

Hi Vikram,

I have INSPIRION N5110 and its facing the same prob. Plugged in not charging. I tried looking into the BIOS setting and as u mentioned I can see that the AC Adapter type is set to NONE. But I am not able to change that setting. All the BIOS is giving me is to change the date and time. How do I access those options??

Also I tried the other way of updating the BIOS from the Dell site. However I can find BIOS updates only for Windows 8 etc. There are no updates for Windows 10. How should I proceed?

Quick suggestion will be helpful.

Hi, I am subject to the same type of issues, and was hoping someone came up with the answer.

I have a very old XPS 13 (L321X) running Ubuntu and the battery decided to stop charging. Now from this one, I'm at a complete loss, since I don't run Windows (ACPI issue), and I've replaced all the hardware:

1. Replaced the AC adapter with 3 different ones (same behavior, not charging)
2. Replaced the battery
3. Replaced the AC recepticle
4. Replaced the motherboard
5. Replaced the daughterboard

All are producing the same issue in Bios "Cannot determine the adapter type, battery may not charge". 

Oddly, the pieces I haven't replaced: 

• cable between mother & daughter board
• speakers
• track pad or keyboard
• front LED
• LCD screen

Anyone have any suggestions?

Does everything work OK except for the charging? Will it fully charge when the computer is OFF? Were the mother board and power board or chargers new or used?

One of the major failure routes in laptops is the DC socket connections, and this would be the daughter (power) board. It's likely any used parts could be available because they were bad. It could be the cable, but this would be low probability. Did you try a HIGHER output charger? Some laptops have had problems with insufficient power from the recommended supply, and were solved with a larger supply.

i have a all in one inpirion 24 dell desktop i keep getting the same message what should i do?

DELL-ROSHAN L WROTE THE FOLLOWING POST AT 26 JUN 2012 7:42:

Hi lsavinon,

Welcome to the Community,

Since you're conforming the battery is charging fine and Adapter light always stays on,try going to BIOS (Tap F2 at start up),check under the Main screen if AC adapter is getting detected normally(if it shows 65 watt adapter).

If it shows 65 watt and if you want to get rid of that error message on start up,in BIOS go to Advanced tab,find Adapter warning and disable it.

Note:Once you disable this setting for adapter warning,in future if there is a real problem with the adapter,system will not warn you about any such problem.

Thank You

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If adapter isn't recognized, don't you WANT AND NEED to see the message? Isn't this like ignoring blood that's coming from somewhere it shouldn't? Maybe I don't understand; although the NOTE might be worth careful consideration. Is this really Dell's solution/answer/position?