The systems will, unless something is wrong, function from powerup to shutdown without a battery.

The AC adapter not recognized means there's a problem with the adapter or the power jack on the system board.

Hi,

Once again many thanks.

The only issue I have is that with three XPS laptops and a Latitude, I have four power supplies  - all that work fine with the Latitude and all work fine with the XPS systems providing the battery has half a decent  charge in it (otherwise I get the "AC" message). Then, if I swap batteries to one with a hint of a charge in (enough to get past the Dell screen, I can insert any of the power supplies and run normally (even charging the batteries and being able to swap them whilst running the p.c.'s.

It does seem as if that whilst the Dell screen is loading, it does some background checks on power levels and "fails" if the battery is below a certain level.

I will power the laptop down, and take the battery out and see if I can boot from AC (but have tried before unsuccesfully) - will let you know if I get any further.

Thanks

Mike

Hi EJN63,

Many thanks - that's interesting.

When you say that the systems will work with AC only, do you mean from boot up (in other words are you saying that I can plug the AC in, take the battery out and turn the unit on and it will boot as normal), or do you mean once the system is up and running with AC and the battery I can then take the battery out and it will then run on AC only?

The reason I ask is that my system will run without the battery (ie AC only), once it is up and running. It will not boot without a battery present (once it gets past the Dell "splash" screen, I get the "AC adapter not recognised" message.

I think it is also interesting that all three of these laptops are behaving in exactly the same way just months out of warranty.

Thanks

Mike 

If you know the power adapter is OK (LED comes ON before you plug in the notebook end), then the problem is with the system board.  The systems will work with AC only - i..e., with no battery installed -- unless the system board is faulty.

Hi,

Thanks again for all you help.

I did as suggested (pressing the TAB key), but it did nothing (tried with and without the AC).

Interestingley enough I have never been really impressed with the speed of this p.c. (in fact any of the three that I bought), as they have always been slower than the "cheap" latitude that I bought.

Looks like there is something very wrong with the design of these things and with the price of laptops coming down all the time, it might be time for a new one (well, once the latitude packs in anyway).

Many thanks

Mike

Hi EJN63,

Just thought I would let you know how I got on with removing the battery and trying to boot withAC only. It failed with t he same "AC not recognised" message. I then put the battery back in, took the AC out and it booted fine (let it get past the first Dell screen and then attached AC). It's now up and running and have taken the battery out so it's now running on AC only.

Will put battery back in so it's constantly being topped up in case I need to move or unplug etc.

I know this could sound like a system board problem, but is there anyway of finding out what the system is doing when the Dell screen appears (it must be doing something otherwise why put it there??).

In any case, if this was a system board problem, why would it dissapear once the system was up and running?

Anyone help???

Thanks

Mike

The system is doing its power on self test - pres the TAB key to shrink the Dell screen to see it.  If the system won't power up without a battery, there's likely more wrong than just the power jack itself - there's something wrong with the power circuitry itself.  The problem actually doesn't disappear once the system is fully booted - you'll likely find it won't run at full speed since the AC adapter isn't being properly detected.