Vostro 3578 Battery Error

If the battery isn't the issue, the charge circuit on the mainboard is -- whether you want to spend the money to replace the board on a system this old is something you'll have to consider.  Before doing so, compare the cost of a (perhaps newer) used system, as it may not cost much more  and will cost less if you have to pay a labor charge for the board replacement).

@ejn63​ The thing is, though, that I still get this error when I power the system on from the battery alone, with no charger connected.

  If I ignore the error Windows will tell me the amount of charge in the battery (33% remaining) and the 'Battery Info. View' utility tells me that it is a Dell 991XP53 battery with a serial number of 44853, so there is clearly full communication going on.
  If I then plug in the charger, the Windows charging icon appears and Battery Info View tells me that the system is running on AC power. The battery charge doesn't increase, however.
So I don't see any evidence of an obvious fault, just that the laptop is behaving weirdly!

Does the system correctly identify the AC adapter (F2 at powerup to check) or  does it show unknown?  Note:  the system will run on AC with an unrecognized adapter, but the battery will not charge, so you must check in setup.

The BIOS says 'Health: Not a Dell Battery' (which is wrong) and 'AC adapter = 130W' (which is correct).

That points back to the mainboard, but given the age of the system, if these are "OEM" batteries, they've either been rebult or they're very old.  On the battery itself is a PPID string with the Dell part number including the manufacture date.  Post that string (or a readable photo of it) and someone can help you decipher the age of the battery.

Would that be the one that says KR-0991XP-75507-535-C0K2-A00 ? There's no obvious sign that the battery has ever been opened up and rebuilt. I have tried two other, identical batteries with exactly the same result, and this battery worked fine in both of those other laptops.

That battery is over 10 years old if it's OEM -- made in March 2015.  

The battery certainly isn't new, and it isn't the one that came with the laptop, but it is in good condition. I can't remember the exact details, but from memory it still has around 75% of its original storage capacity remaining.

 - The computer and battery can clearly communicate, as BatteryInfoView can read and display data from the battery.

 - Apart from power and the serial communication lines (see above) the only other signal provided by the battery is the 'Battery Present' line. That has to working correctly or we would get 'Battery not detected' errors - which we dont. (I've just proved this by isolating the connector, and that's exactly what happened).
 - I've reset the BIOS (left it with no mains, battery or coin cell power for several hours) and it makes no difference

 - We know that the BIOS correctly detects a Dell 130W power adaptor.

So I'm still no nearer to understanding why it's doing this!

 - I've reflashed the BIOS with lots of different versions and it never changes anything. I currently have the latest version installed.
 - The Dell Power Manager idea is a good one - I'll try that and see if it gives us any clues.

 - There's no evidence of a problem with the battery connector. As far as I can see it's all working exactly as intended.

 - I've tried two other batteries and they all give the same error. All three batteries work perfectly in two other Dell laptops (different models, though).

@ianbak​ 

If so, it's a mainboard fault - you will need to evaluate the cost of a mainboard replacement against the value of the system to you.

Well, Dell Power Manager just complains that 'A non-Dell battery has been detected' - which as we know, is straight up wrong!

But why would it think that? The only signal lines going to and from the battery are SMBCLK, SMBDAT and BATPRES# (I've got the schematic in front of me!) all of which we know to be working correctly. And why would updating the BIOS fix the problem for several people with exactly the same issue but not help here?

@fahadali​ What is this 'battery ID line'that you're talking of? There is only SMBCLK, SMBDAT and BATPRES#, all of which are operating exactly as expected. (I've tested BATPRES# by taping over the connector blade and, as you would expect, it results in the battery not being detected in Windows).

The Dell Vostro 3578 battery error usually means the laptop can’t recognize the battery even if it works otherwise. Try cleaning the battery contacts and check for bent pins. Power reset the laptop by removing battery and AC, then holding the power button 30 seconds. If that fails, the motherboard or embedded controller might be faulty. Since BIOS updates haven’t helped, contacting Dell Support or a repair service is recommended. These steps cover most fixes for this issue. @ianbak If it works kindly plz let me know. 

@user_531946​ Those things have all been tried already and none of them made any difference!