Hi Sarah-Jane-Randall,

Please check if the charging port on the laptop is loose. You may also try to wiggle the AC Adapter and check if it works. You can connect an alternate AC Adapter and check if the issue persists. 

Alternatively, you may try the following steps.

Drain the residual power from the laptop:

• Disconnect any external peripherals (flash drives, printers, external hard drives) from the computer
• Then remove the adapter
• Remove the battery
• Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds
• Reconnect the battery and the adapter
• Try to restart the computer and check

If the battery is >10% charged, you may try to update the BIOS of the computer from the following link http://dell.to/WCrVFr

Please reply if you have any questions.

Okay I have tried wiggling the AC adapter and nothing. I have updated BIOS and it still isn't charging.  I am about to try the alternate steps you provided. I shut down the computer first before removing the adapter and battery, right?

That didn't work either.

Try a new (or borrow) Dell OEM power adapter.  If that doesn't work, then the next step is to replace the power jack:

www.parts-people.com/index.php

(the part for the N5010 is the same as for the M5010).

and if that doesn't solve the problem, replace the mainboard.