I have the same problem. One C840, two AC adapters, both turn off after a while. But only when charging batteries. Unplug brick from AC, plug back in and operates for about another 10 minutes.
Please watch the light on the AC adapter and see if it remains on when the system loses power from the AC adapter. Please make sure that you are running the latest BIOS for your system, and restore the defaults by hitting Alt+F after entering setup.
No, the green LED goes off completely, as original poster states.
I will check BIOS version and restore defaults on next reboot. Looking at BIOS release notes, A04 appears to include a fix for this problem. I suspect I may have an earlier version as my laptop was purchased right around when this was released (07/09/02).
I have the same problem with my 840- the power supply light goes out and it goes into battery mode- but only when the battery is charging AND the PC is on. The battery and power supply have been replaced and BIOS updated- it didnt do sheet.
Still looking for real fix if anyone has one...
I've had similar problems with a C800. Never resolved completely. I did observe that the charger shutdown usually occurred under the following conditions:
1) 2 batteries installed
2) both batteries pretty deeply discharged (often the result of unintended self-starts of the system from stand-by while it was in my briefcase - but that's another problem).
I'd plug in the AC adapter, and, within 10 minutes, the green light on the adapter would go out and the PC would go to battery mode. I could reset the adapter by disconnecting it from AC supply and reconnecting it, but it would often shut down again in a few minutes. I noticed that the adapter (70Watt) was usually pretty hot, and I finally decided that the adapter was overloading while trying to charge two batteries and run the PC at the same time. My workaround was to remove the secondary battery and charge only one until it was at least 50% charged. The fact that this seemed to work strengthens my conviction that it was an overload/overheating situation.
phil_mas
3 Posts
0
March 17th, 2003 15:00
P.S. Home AC is 125V, 50Hz.
Rollie_R
2 Intern
•
2.2K Posts
0
March 20th, 2003 15:00
All,
Thank you for using the Dell Community Forum.
Please watch the light on the AC adapter and see if it remains on when the system loses power from the AC adapter. Please make sure that you are running the latest BIOS for your system, and restore the defaults by hitting Alt+F after entering setup.
If the problem continues, please contact Technical Support.
phil_mas
3 Posts
0
March 20th, 2003 16:00
I will check BIOS version and restore defaults on next reboot. Looking at BIOS release notes, A04 appears to include a fix for this problem. I suspect I may have an earlier version as my laptop was purchased right around when this was released (07/09/02).
Phil
cleatus45
2 Intern
•
281 Posts
0
April 30th, 2003 18:00
Still looking for real fix if anyone has one...
phil_mas
3 Posts
0
April 30th, 2003 19:00
Any ideas, Dell?
RickGTOC
3 Posts
0
May 12th, 2003 19:00
I've had similar problems with a C800. Never resolved completely. I did observe that the charger shutdown usually occurred under the following conditions:
1) 2 batteries installed
2) both batteries pretty deeply discharged (often the result of unintended self-starts of the system from stand-by while it was in my briefcase - but that's another problem).
I'd plug in the AC adapter, and, within 10 minutes, the green light on the adapter would go out and the PC would go to battery mode. I could reset the adapter by disconnecting it from AC supply and reconnecting it, but it would often shut down again in a few minutes. I noticed that the adapter (70Watt) was usually pretty hot, and I finally decided that the adapter was overloading while trying to charge two batteries and run the PC at the same time. My workaround was to remove the secondary battery and charge only one until it was at least 50% charged. The fact that this seemed to work strengthens my conviction that it was an overload/overheating situation.
- Rick
cleatus45
2 Intern
•
281 Posts
0
December 11th, 2003 13:00
tried the bios etc.etc..
ended up replacing the motherboard- worked fine after that
Bontje
1 Message
0
April 9th, 2004 08:00
I have this problem only when I am using my docking station (C/Port II).
I think the capacity of the AC adapter is not enough! The C840 is consuming 90Watt and the docking station will use some too!!
Is it possible to use the 130Watt AC Adapter (for Dell Inspiron 5150) instead of the 90Watt AC Adapter??