Inspiron 7000 freezes when on AC power AND battery is charging...

Question

My friends in the Dell community:   I plead with you for your help.  I am the new owner of an Inspiron 7000 (PII/266 192MB, Windows XP Pro, believe it or not).  My dad has been using it for a year or so with no trouble to speak of.  Now that I have it, I've noticed a serious problem.  After some serious troubleshooting, here's what I have discovered:   The Inspiron freezes - what I mean by that is the mouse cursor freezes and the computer is completely unresponsive - under the following conditions: 1. APM is ENABLED in XP. 2. The AC power adapter is plugged in to the Inspiron. 3. The battery is not already at 100%, and is therefore charging. These conditions together cause the Inspiron to lock up randomly, some time after XP boots.  If the battery is already charged, I can run on AC power just fine.  If APM is disabled, I can run on AC power just fine.  If AC power is disconnected, and I'm running from the battery, the computer runs very smoothly with OR without APM enabled. Additionally, I can pull the battery out and run on AC power WITH APM enabled with no problem. But if APM is ENABLED, and the battery is taking a charge, Windows freezes. Somebody please tell me this is some kind of known issue and there is a fix of some kind.   Without APM, I can't tell what the status is of the battery at all.  But WITH APM, I can't use AC power and keep working on the computer. The Inspiron appears to be running the latest available BIOS. Oh yeah, almost forgot something else I've done, while desperately trying to fix this problem.  I've downgraded to Windows 2000, with the same result.  I've reinstalled XP many, many times, each with thorough HD formats (NTFS). Please, please help me. Sincerely, Russ Nixon Denver, Colorado Message Edited by temproductions on 02-05-2004 02:29 PM

bluetracker · Answer

You paid a visit to the REDMOND help center lately? (Windows Update)

Could be worth your while doing so. APM is a fickle beast at the best of times...numerous patches are available to try and combat these probs, courtesy of 'Uncle Bill'

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Was this post helpful?