Dell Inspiron 700M mysterious power issue

I have a Dell Inspiron 700M whose battery is not holding a charge. As the system boots up, it gives the extremely low battery warning, and shuts down within 5 seconds. After the system shuts down subsequent to the low power warning, the battery must be ejected and replaced before the system can be turned on again. Additionally, the computer will not turn on with the AC adapter plugged in while the battery is ejected. Assuming this issue is not repairable, and i wish to recover some data from the hard drive by transferring it into my desktop, will I be able to so?

Thanks.

 

as far as recovering data...

you should be able to pop out that HD and use any number of HD enclosures/cables that will allow you to recover whatever bits you'd like


devices like this are what I'm talking about

 

That is weird, your computer should be able to boot up with the ac adapter only, try with the battery out and the ac adapter in, also try with another ac adapter. Your battery might not be charging due to the AC adapter, if your computer does not boot up with another ac adapter the motherboard has to be replaced.

 

"Additionally, the computer will not turn on with the AC adapter plugged in while the battery is ejected". So a new motherboard, eh? Is that something best left to dell techs or would I be able to do this on my own? Or would it just be cheaper to buy a new/used replacement? Before these problems started, there were other major software issues... i.e. 700+ viruses, trojans, adware etc. after a virus scan with PC Tools AntiVirus Free Edition 4.0, the computer stopped charging properly and would give a low battery warning after the POST, and then load windows, and right before windows reached the login page, the PC would shut down, and would not turn on again until the battery was ejected and replaced. Now it does not even make it to loading windows without shutting down. Any suggestions are welcome.

 

It was the power supply.