Proprietary Dell AC Adapter Required to Charge Battery?

Have fun fixing that bugger.

 

Here's some more info on Dell power adaptors, including some quasi-official comments on it from people working for Dell (and lots of other people):

http://www.ideastorm.com/article/show/73529/Standardize_Power_Cables_for_Laptops

 

Not really. Because each cell in the battery pack must be monitored, li-ion safety circuits will be in the battery pack itself, not in the AC power adapter.

The only safety issues with third party adapters are that a higher voltage adapter would destroy the laptop and an adapter with too low an ampacity and no overload protection could catch fire. Both of these risks are present regardless of if the battery is charging or not.

Chipping AC adapters to prevent the use of third party units is no different from chipping inkjet cartridges to prevent refilling: it's a cash grab.

 

Or an attempt to protect themselves from getting sued if something goes wrong? Mobile phone companies always warn not to use third-party batteries or charges for safety reasons. I'm not say it's right, but I can see why Dell might do it.

£35 isn't that much for an AC adapter, really. A new battery costs £60+.

 

Yeah, £35 might seem a bit much but it is tested and follows all safety laws. There no guarantee that a third party one you buy of ebay etc will be safe.

 

That's a bit of a fallacy. You can protect yourself from being sued by NOT using an annoying proprietary solution and instead posting warnings and disclaimers on or near the product, box, literature, whatever. Many, many companies do this already.

That last time I looked at an AC adapter was 70US and a battery was 170US. I consider neither a value. That's basically a 240 dollar power supply! I could have a PC power and cooling 1000 watt unit in a desktop for that much.

 

It could be just a bad tip if you're using a multi-tip adapter. When I bought my 120W Kensington universal adapter, it came with one N19 that fit my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop, but I had an option to choose an additional tip free. I chose the same one, the N19. The one I used first worked fine for charging battery, also. I had taken the tip off to use another one for my daughter's laptop. When I put a N19 back on, the laptop would power, but the battery would not charge, and I got the warning screen on boot that the adapter wasn't recognized. I never thought about the one tip being bad until today. I just put the other N19 on and I'm good with battery charging again. So, obviously, in my case, it's all in a 100% tip, nothing else. I suspect whatever problem there is with the other N19 could be relevant to generic adapters .... i.e., pin a bit too narrow, etc. That being the case, one generic adapter may work fine, another not. For those with multi-tip adapters, it may be worth buying another tip to try.

Hope that helps someone.