1. Turn off the laptop

2. Unplug the charger

3. Remove the battery

4. Hold the power button for 10 seconds.

5. Replace the battery and plug in.

What's the point of holding in the power button for 10 seconds if the unit is unplugged and the battery removed? The power button is disabled when there is no power flowing into the pc.

Doing so removes all residual power to the system and will reset the BIOS to defaults as well.

I found a solution which might help a lot of people here. 

My battery stopped charging a few weeks ago.  I thought it might be a problem where my BIOS needed to be flashed, but luckily, I ran into problems there.  When I tried to run it directly from Windows, it wouldn't go ahead because I got a "battery under 10%" warning.  I wanted to bypass this so I created a bootable disk on a USB key and was going to update the BIOS from that with the /forceit command, but it wouldn't let me run in DOS mode, because it is a Windows executable.  I was getting pretty frustrated, because I had already tried a new charger and that didn't help, and I was fairly certain that the battery was actually good.

Anyway, I ended up taking my laptop apart and discovered that there is a tiny silver screw which helps hold the power connector in place inside the laptop.  Somehow, mine snapped.  Possibly when I was trying to use the laptop in a bouncing safari van one day, and smacked the power cord when it was plugged in.  Anyway, this silver screw was still intact, but the tiny loop of metal that was holding the connector to the chassis/case of the laptop had sheared.  The connector receptacle appear to still be in approximately the same place, so when I plugged in, the laptop was getting power.  But it was really set back about a millimeter.  This setback was just enough so the pin in the end of the power cord didn't completely enter the connector, and thus didn't get to the connection point which allowed for charging to take place.

I ended up re-seating the connector where it should be and then using crazy glue to fix it in place, and put the laptop case back together.  After I did that and plugged in my power cord, the battery started charging immediately.

If you're going crazy because of this situation, try taking your laptop case apart (carefully!) and plug your power cord in so that it is completely attached to the connection receptacle, and see if that helps.  You might not need to flash your BIOS !!

If this solution solves your problems, do me a favor and share a link to one of my pages on some of your social media.  You can find me by doing a Google search for DJ Bolivia.

Good luck with your repairs ...

- Jonathan

Plunged in not chargering

Thanks! Working again.

---

Dell Inspiron N4030

you need a new 'ac adapter'.. the metal inside your plugin is worn down and not making sufficient contact... $15 on amazon... buy 2..

I bought a Dell Precision M4800. The only issue I have is the "plugged in not charging" message. What works for me is that I power on the laptop and allow it to boot. When fully booted, I take out the battery and then replace after a few seconds. Then "plugged in charging" message comes up.

Hello,

I just encountered the same problem. Seems that it has cropped up for more than one M4800 user in the past few days. Tried your method but it didn't work.

You could also  try plugging in the jack and then booting up. That also works for me. It seems when I boot up and then plug the jack in (in that order) the jack isn't recognized. 

The computer runs fine with the battery out and adaptor plugged in. Looks like its the connection between the battery and the adaptor that isn't working. I'm loath to replace the motherboard - would I lose all my hard drive data? What a pain for something barely 2 weeks old.

Honestly, I don't have the knowledge to give that kind of advice. I don't know computers to that depth. 

To be honest that sort of advice is beyond my knowledge. I'll just use those little techniques that works for me (for now).