Dell Inspiron 1520 doesn't detect AC Adapter

Hi,

So my 4 year old inspiron suddenly decided to die on me. At least I thought it did.

It started with my laptop going on battery power randomly even when the adapter was plugged in. Turns out there was a problem with the power cord. In certain positions, the adapter worked! After 1-2 days, the laptop again went back to battery power and the battery discharged completely. After that, when I booted up the laptop again, all was well except that windows still thought I was on battery power but actually the laptop was on AC power since I was able to work for more than 3-4 hours on it. But, that came to an end when smoke started coming out of the power cord! My bad luck was that the adapter was still plugged in to the laptop.

Now, when I try to start my laptop, it just won't do. With the battery inserted and adapter plugged in, on pressing the power button the battery charging light flashes orange for 1-2 seconds indicating that the battery is drained out.

Without the battery, pressing the power button does nothing. I have tried a different adaptor as well, so its not the adaptor. I also have a spare battery on which the laptop works but still won't recognize that its plugged in.


Any ideas or suggestions about what the problem is? The laptop config is in my signature.

 

If you plug in the a/c adapter and the green light on the a/c adapter goes out then you will need to replace the motherboard.

 

It seems that the power adapter has burned out and well your battery is not charging because there is no power coming it at all. You should have both replaced to be on the safe side, I would recommend getting a 7800mah Dell Inspiron 1520 9-Cell Battery from here, it's 30 bucks and you can get a charger adapter from here as well. That's exactly what I did this past March and I haven't had any issues yet. I believe I have 3 years to call in a warranty but honestly, even by then it'll be shock if I still have my laptop or if the batteries are worth more than $5.

This tends to happen sometimes because you are always charging your laptop while it's plugged in, generally, I don't do that as it burns out the battery far quicker and apparently seems to degrade the adapter as well. I have found a method around this by using this and having a spare battery on you is always a good thing. Now when I need to charge my battery, I just use my adapter plugged in to power my laptop and use this external charger in order to charge my battery so there is no degradation.

Both the charger and battery above are from the United States and the sellers there have enough in stock to offer you a 3-year/36 month warranty on both of them. They are right by apartment which is one of the reasons as to why I was able to get it so quickly, but it's about 6-months and both of them are still functioning with no problem.

 

I have tried a brand new Dell adaptor and the laptop does not detect it as well. It runs on battery just fine but it won't charge the battery or power up on AC power. I am beginning to think that there is something wrong with the motherboard circuitry

As far as the green light goes, the adaptor doesn't have one! The only light is at the base of the tip and that too is blue. I guess they have different adaptors here! The blue light does not go off when I plug it into the laptop.

 

It's possible that you blew out your A/C Converter but the odds of that are far more rare but still possible. I recommend you get familiar with your Dell to the point where you can take it apart and put it back together it several times without worrying, and get started on replacing this. From what I think, it's not that difficult and it should snap right in but be careful when you are taking it out at first, it maybe soldered on to the motherboard, and you would only need a really good blow-dryer then.