The system board is faulty.

That sounds bleak. I am having the same problem; if I do not jiggle the part of the power cord that leads to the black adapter box and position it just-so, the computer will not recognize the connection. Is it possible that it is just a power cord problem? If it is a system board problem, how serious of a problem is it to fix? My ethernet port is also having similar problems; when jiggled it loses its connection to the internet and has to be jiggled again to reconnect. Are these problems related?

Hi, I am having the same problem; I don't know what to do about it. The cord will only work if I physically push it into the back of my computer, I also have to be doing this constantly, as you can imagine, working like this proves difficult! Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Katie

 

 

 

I'm having the same problem!  Only I can't get my laptop to recognize my power cord even if I jiggle it.  It started with just quickly switching back and forth between battery and AC adapter power, sometines sticking with one or the other.  No it's just stuck on battery power, though sometimes it still flickers back and forth when I boot up.  What's going on?  I don't want to have to buy an expensive new power cord, especially if it's not going to fix the problem like the KSA4!

Message Edited by ms_ehuffman on 02-09-2006 01:24 PM

Ok, I might've found my solution.  I put my husband's battery into my 5150, and suddenly my laptop recognizes my AC adapter again! I dunno, I'm thinking there might've been a bad connection between my battery and the computer which caused all the craziness.  We'll see after it's done charging in my husband's computer and I clean it and try it back in mine.  Just something you all might want to try, too, if you haven't found anything else.

Everyone is having this problem. It's extremely common, and is due to the fact that Dell manufactured a computer with a faulty design (the motherboard separates easily from the power jack). Now won't do anything about it except charge people hundreds of dollars to fix a problem that will probably recurr. This is certainly my last Dell.

Check out this thread to see how common this problem seems to be:

http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=insp_power&message.id=31602&view=by_date_ascending&page=1

Anyway, I haven't figured out what I am going to do about my problem, but I am definitely going to write a letter to Dell and try to speak with someone with more authority than the technical support or customer service people. Good luck.