m1330 hardware error

Call Dell - the first attempt will be a replacement AC adapter;  if it doesn't work, they'll replace the mainboard under warranty.

If it doesn't "recognize" the power adapter, there's a chance that it won't "know" how to handle the power coming down the wire from the adapter, and that could potentially fry the system.

Or so my friends with engineering degrees tell me (electrical and computer engineers).

n I meant  the LED on the front on the laptop light up and say its charging, or the logo on the task bar also does not say that the laptop is charging when I plug in the power adapter

the only problem I think it is, is that the soldering between the slot where you plug the power adapter in and the main board has come loose as the laptop works fine, but it does not recieve any power when you plug in the adapter

Look at the adapter plug.. ( computer side ) and see if there is a pin inside the plug ( kind of like a coax cable )

also is the light on the AC adapter on?

One other thing i would try before calling Dell..

Take the battery out, have the AC adapter plugged in and see if it powers on.. check the contacts on the battery to see if they are clean/damaged..

Put the battery back in and retest... sometimes reseating the battery fixes some issues..

If nothing works, it is most likely the motherboard.. Dell would have to replace that..

Good luck and let us know!

yes the is a pin in the AC adapter and the light does come on when plugged in

I'm really glad they're sending both, most of the time they send only one or the other, and (not all the time, but frequently enough) it's the other part. Hope that works!

If it doesn't there is another piece that might need replaced, the charging board for the battery (might also handle ac adapter detection/validation) is in the bottom plastics of the system. A friend told me it was a big cause of repeat service calls, because it hadn't been pointed out to the techs during their training on the system. Apparently this is completely different from the vast majority of notebooks out there, and so nobody thought to look elsewhere for that piece.

On the other hand, the m1330 and m1530 seem to be really, really nice, and very popular. Hopefully whatever comes after them will be as good.

well I followed your advice and it didn't work :(

However after a 32 minute phone call to a nice indian man I've got a new motherboard and AC adapter on the way tomorrow:)

hopefully he'll be more reliable than when my motherboard last packed in this march