Vostro 1510 - Weird Power Probelm

I just got a refurbed 1510 (system specs below) a couple days ago and everything was working fine until today. A couple hours ago, with the AC adapter plugged in, the system started flip-flopping between AC and battery power for no apparent reason (about every 10-15 seconds or so).

It works fine with the AC adapter only (battery removed) and it works fine unplugged on the battery alone. Anyone ever had this happen to them before or have any idea what may cause this? Dell tech support said it was likely a software issue and wanted me to do a factory restore. I've already put hours into setting this thing up the way I want, so I don't really want to go that route.

Could this possibly be a hardware issue? How does the system know when its plugged in or not? I'm assuming that there must be some sensor on board that measures incoming voltage. Could that have just failed on me?

Thanks in advance for your help guys.


System specs:

Dell Vostro 1510
Vista Home Premium with SP1
C2D T5670 (1.8GHz)
2GB RAM
NVidia GeForce 8400M

 

I had a Vostro 1500 a while back that had a weird power problem although it was different than yours. If the laptop was turned off for an extended period of time it would turn on then turn itself off while booting. I tried a different AC power pack as well as a new battery. To no avail I sent it back as it was a new laptop and got an exchange.

It sounds to me like yours is a hardware issue. If I were you I would call Dell and send it back. Right now they have a terrific deal on brand new Vostro 1510's for $499.

 

Try Latest BIOS?

A13's changelog mentions "Fix battery problem" or something like that.

Give that a whirl.

My Vostro 1510 works like a charm.

 

I'm going to bump this back to page 1 for the Monday crew.

Thanks for the tip on the BIOS. I've got version A12, which Dell tech support told me was the latest version. Of course, this was the same dude that told me to go straight to reformatting the hard drive and reinstalling windows as soon as I was able to convince him that yes, the power cord was plugged in all the way.

When I try to install the A13 bios using from Windows using the instructions from Dell I get a "BIOS not flashable" error. Is there an easy way around that?

I've been messing around with the thing for a couple days now and here's everything I know about what's currently going on.

• System boots and runs normally with AC adapter plugged in and battery removed
• System boots and runs normally on battery only with AC adapter unplugged
• BIOS recognizes the AC adapter as a dell 90W
• When both the AC adapter and battery are connected:
  
  
  [*]If the battery charge is reading less than 99%, the power management icon will switch between "Plugged in, charging" and "Not plugged in, discharging" about every 10-15 seconds or so. This seems to be charging the battery.
  [*]Once the battery charge is indicated at 99%, the power management icon will switch back to "Not plugged in, discharging" and stay there. The battery will remain at 99% as long as I stay plugged in though. I've left the system running overnight in this state, so I'm confident that its not actually discharging the battery.
  [*]If I remove the AC adapter once the system is in the above state the battery will discharge normally.
  [*]When I plug back in without restarting the system, it doesn't indicate that I'm plugged in and the battery will not charge, it will simply stay at whatever % charge it was at when I plugged back in. The power management icon still indicates that I'm discharging the battery though. If I shutdown and restart it will charge the battery, again flipping between indicating plugged in and not plugged in.
  ​

Trying to remember what I was up to a few days ago, I'm about 99% sure my problems started when I unplugged the AC adapter from the wall (leaving the other end connected to the computer), then went to another room and plugged into a different outlet. Although at that point I walked away for about 10 minutes so I don't know if this started exactly when I switched outlets.

My next step will be to try out another power adapter. There are about a million hits on google of people saying that they've had their Dell AC adapter go crazy and cause all sorts of power management issues (although none exactly like mine as far as I can tell). If that doesn't work I'll figure out how to update the BIOS. If that doesn't work this thing is likely going back to Dell, unless anyone here has had a simliar experience and has any other ideas.

Thanks again everyone.