Power Cord Not Recognized

Question

I got a replacement power cord from Dell. Everything worked fine for about a month until...I got a message 'Cannot recognize power cord, this may cause your system to not work properly.' That wording is close but not exact. Message does not always appear. Laptop (Inspiron 1150) works fine. AC power cord icon shows in sys tray. Anybody run in to this? John

bacillus · Answer

I suspect you mean that you got a new power adapter from Dell.
If that is the case then you'll need to look carefully at the specifications of it on the label (ie it's wattage capacity) as they probably send you the lower rated power adapter and hence the warning message.
btw what speed CPU is it in your laptop?

ejn63 · Answer

You're on the road to needing a new mainboard (or $200-250 worth of surface mount repairs, if the board is in good shape otherwise). Message Edited by ejn63 on 05-23-2005 04:25 PM

jocase · Answer

Thanks for the response. I got a new power cord, new brick, new cord that plugs into brick and then into the Inspiron 1150. The chip is Intel Celeron 2.60GHz. The power cord is a 65W Ac adaptor John

bacillus · Answer

My wife has a P4 2.8GHz 1150 and it came with a 90W power adapter.
If you check in your BIOS, you will see there is an option to turn on an error message if the wrong power adapter is used.
I suggest you get in contact with Dell asking for the correct power adapter ie the 90W one.

jocase · Answer

I think you are right that the wattage rating is the problem. I don't rember the wattage rating of the original adapter, but I could dig up the paperwork before I call.

Thanks for all the responses!

John

jocase · Answer

Just for your information, I contacted Dell through E-mail. The response was to tell me to ship the laptop to them and they will fix it. Possibly a new motherboard. It is still under warranty.   It took me a while to find e-mail for support. I went to chat first, and everyone was busy, then I found e-mail support.   So if you get a message on your computer, 'Power adapter not recognized. This  may affect system performance,' it is no small thing. Dell also said they would ship me another adapter.

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Power Cord Not Recognized

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