UNSOLVED
healthy battery not recognised!!!!!!!!
my perfectly functioning laptop ran into trouble yesterday(dell 1520 inspiron).after using for a long time (pluged in),i observed the charge indicator was not showing an increase in charge.i felt this strange as the battery indicator was not lit up even when the charger was on and battery at a stubborn 26% charged.i thought restarting would fix the issue.but when i restarted,at boot time before the boot options were displayed(have both linux ubuntu and windows XP),it said something about battery not recognised press f3 to view msg again or f1 then f2 to continue.i never had this problem before.i was kind of shocked as i never had a battery problem and had a good 2 hour back up before the problem.anyone can help?
yeah i checked the battery gauge indicator for battery helth and only 1 led glowed indicating 80% of the battery capacity is still available.still it doesnot charge.if it was a bios failure,how was it working fine till now?i did not alter the bios or the battery before the problem arose....
LaptopNomad
539 Posts
241
0
Posted November 12th, 2009 10:00
It;s a communication failure with the microcontroller inside the battery.
Once BIOS can't figure out the battery type, it shuts down charging.
Go into BIOS setup and check if the battery type is mentioned - it shouldn't report unknown.
If reported as unknown, take the battery to a similar laptop, if it's the same it's a battery problem
if it's ok in a different system it's a motherboard failure
i dont think so.i think the problem is with adapter.my inspiron 1520 adapter has a strange problem.when plugged in,the led glows,laptop is powered but the battery is not charged.when i use another adapter,its charging.is my adapter damaged?if it is damaged,why is it powering up my laptop?
LaptopNomad
539 Posts
241
0
Posted November 12th, 2009 14:00
A dell AC adapter consists of 2 totally separate parts.
1) AC-DC converter supplying voltage and current
2) AC Adapter identification through a 3rd wireWhen 2) is damaged, 1) still works - because 1) and 2) are totally separated
Go into BIOS setup, there it reports the AC adapter type and Battery type.
If either is listed as "unknown", BIOS deliberately de-activates battery charging - even when 1) is fully operational.
Read about the infamous AC adapter identification chip
hi i took a look into bios set up and you were right.in the battery section, it is listed as "AC ADAPTER = UNKNOWN DEVICE INSTALLED".why did the bios not recognise the battery suddenly when it was working fine for an year and a half?i did not change the battery nor did i try to change anything with the bios.and how can i reactivate charging now that i know bios shut it down?
LaptopNomad
539 Posts
241
0
Posted October 8th, 2009 15:00
DELL uses "intelligent" batteries in laptops. DELL batteries communicate with the BIOS
running on the motherboard. If the battery doesn't respond as expected on a request for
it's type, battery charging stops. It's shutdown by BIOS.
What you describe seems like a communication failure with the battery. Try a battery of the
same type and see what happens. If it's still the same, get ready for motherboard gymnastics.
Read about the DELL Battery charging system
Cheers!