Power adapter

Hi tentonine!
Hey folks, I get mad with this computer!

Thank's for the hint. I tried again to install the "wrong" graphic driverfor the I8600 and it worked again. Last time after about ten reboots the problem came back.

Thursday I got the message "The AC Power Adapter type cannot be determined. This will prevent optimal system performance." The battery is not being charged any more. So far - so bad! This Forum stopped me from feeling lonely with this problem. Now I was thinking the whole weekend about what could be wrong and I have the following Idea. Nothing complicated - no electronic -
more an electrical or better mechanical reason.

There must be tree wires inside the cable. (I always thought about only two) I made this scheme.

Of course I didn't destroy my plug, it's just an idea. The metallic cylinder of the plug must consist of two insulated cylinders. The inner one is + the outer one - .The tiny pin in the middle (D) is just for data communication between computer and power adapter. My idea is as the pin is so tiny - why should the wire connected to it be thicker. The two power wires might be very stable but the data wire maybe is very fragile. Now I'm using my I8500 since half a year and I wrapped the cable about 100 times around the brick. Could this data cable just be broken so the computer doesn't recongnize it's own power supply any more? Maybe one could repair the adapter just by exchanging the cable between brick and computer - but this is not so easy...

Unfortunately I'm not able to test my computer with an other adapter as so far I don't have another one. But what makes me believing this: Now it's sunday and I just started writing this message. And when I switched on my computer everything was fine and the battery is charging now... Try bending the cable several times - maybe you are successful ???

The best reason I can find for integrating a data cable into a power supply is to prevent third party producers from creating cheaper models. A lot of other companies don't make such a trouble and you can easily buy a cheap universal power supply for their notebook - but DELL is something special!
Btw: these things are made in China. I would like to know what is the price DELL pays for it.

Here is the label at the back of my brick:

Inspiron 8500 bought August 2003
Intel Pentium4-m 2.2 GHz
excellent wonderful WUXGA 1920x1200
512 MB Ram
60 GB HDD
8xDVD & 24/10/24x CD-RW
no Bluetooth
Dell Truemobile® 1300 802.11b/g Wireless
64 MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce 4 4200 Go (unfortunately flashed with BIOS A03)
Win XP Pro german
BIOS A04
Clicking sound fixed
Hidden mouse cursor somehow fixed
Currently AC Power Adapter problem, Battery not charging
Scratched lid
missing line in plug, floppy drive, PS2 port
... what is next?

Message Edited by btc8k3 on 09-14-2003 05:02 PM

Hi

I just want to add, that I solved the problem by mailing to DELL support. I still have guarantee on my Inspiron 8500. I described the problem and the only question they asked was if my adress is correct. About five days later I got a parcel with a new adapter which now works as it should do.

No need to complain - if the problem doesn't appear with the new adapter again...

H. Becker

Inspiron 8500 bought August 2003
Intel Pentium4-m 2.2 GHz
excellent wonderful WUXGA 1920x1200
512 MB Ram
60 GB HDD
8xDVD & 24/10/24x CD-RW
no Bluetooth
Dell Truemobile® 1300 802.11b/g Wireless
64 MB DDR NVIDIA GeForce 4 4200 Go (unfortunately flashed with BIOS A03)
Win XP Pro german
BIOS A04

greetings from down under : ) I have a inspiron 600m with the same problem, the power supply fails to recharge the battery and comes up with the 'cannot be determined' message : ( tried to contact dell support but no reply yet .... did you ever find out how the third pin works? is it a simple voltage or a 'data' connection of some sort? kind regards, joffpeck

Yesterday I got the 'not recognised' message on my inspiron 8500. (So adapter is working as power supply but battery charging is disabled.) Before yesterday I had no problems at all and power cable and connectors is 100% undamaged.

I decided to break open the power brick. (Yes, really break, beacause there are no screws)

And yes .. as many people suspected the small pin of the connector is the DATA line and is connected to a Dallas DS 2501 1-wire memory chip in the power brick. The 2501 is 512 bit EPROM with also an unique identification code. Measurement by oscilloscope made it clear that this chip is indeed DEAD, the 'high' voltage on the DATA line was about 0.6 V while it should be at least 2.2 V.

When disconnecting the data line from the memory chip and measuring the signal level on the DATA line when plugging in the connector in the laptop the signal level is back to a perfect 3.3 V and the laptop is clearly sending request signals, so the laptop should be o.k.

Of course this minor defect can't easily be repaired, because when buying a new DS-2501 as a replacement, first it should be programmed with the right data, so you need programming software/hardware and of course a power brick with a still intact DS-2501 to copy the data from!

Guess I have to buy a new power brick .....  

(... or call Dell service and get the advice to replace the mainboard ??? ridiculous!)

Re the continuing saga of the stupid power adaptor, I was lucky enough to have mine fail within the one year guarantee period and get a replacment from Dell, but not without some further stupidity on their part, such as insisting on also replacing the motherboard at the same time (I declined!) ....

As this fault (the centre data pin failing in some way, either the chip or the wire to the pin etc) is likely to recur again, is there not some way we can put some pressure on Dell to give us an updated ROM which does not try to insist on a proprietary power supply? How to contact Dell in writing with a complaint signed by a group of users from this forum, for example?

Allthough it is of course rediculous that you can't simply circumvent the check for a proper dell power supply. Stupid situation: allthough the power supply will provide the right juice for the laptop, it won't operate at normal speed anyhow. Dell should have enabled the option to edit the bios to ignore the absence of the signal line in a powersupply.

I do however found a workaround for people who cannot or don't want to buy a whole new power block if only the signal line is broken. In my case an inspiron 8600 with an 1400 Mhz Mobile processor. It would operate no faster than 599 Mhz after problems with the signal line..No workarounds available in the bios, so with some searching and experimenting  I discovered the following

workaround:

- download and install the program CPUMSR (which wil enable you to edit the CPU speed directly), note install the encapsulated DLL file first.

- boot the PC and press F1 at the message about the unidentifieable powersupply (it will boot up in slow speed).

- after boot run the CPUMSR tool and adjust in tab Frequency and Voltage the values. It will show the maximum multiplier and voltages suitable for your processor. I set the both to max and presto the clock was running at full speed again. Be aware this tool has lots of options you should not fiddle around with, it can hurt your hardware.

It is not a permanent solution though. If you restart the pc, you need to manually set the processor speed again (so I put the tool on my desktop). For me it change an almost bricked pc to a usable laptop again. 

Why didn't I just buy a new power adapter?

Besides the obvious answer, why should I pay lot's of money for something stupid like a broken cable or powerplug..

The laptop ( inspiron 8600)  had the problem that the connector on the motherboard was broken, So after the battery ran down, the laptop was unusable. Techncally I could have replaced the whole motherboard, but that also seemed a waste of money (since all worked exept the stupid power plug). So I connected a wire drectly to the motherboard (pigtail) with a different type (more sturdy) connector to the power adapter. This was working OK for a month or two, until the signal line of my poweradapter died and the messages started coming about an unidentified power adapter.  So replacing the poweradapter wasn't a simple or sound solution anymore. Since the bios has no options to bypass the poweradapter check, I was left with an extremely slow laptop. So the workaround was a nice find..

. Hope Dell will indeed  remedy this designflaw and put options in the bios of laptops, allowing to change these kind of settings directly in de bios if needed.