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Laptop stopped acknowledging charger, now it has died and can't be turned back on?!

Butter!

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Butter!
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Once again, I come to the reliable nerds here, a supplicant, seeking your wisdom. I have a Dell Elitebook running Windows 7 Professional, refurbished, haven't had it that long.

The other day I had it plugged in and was listening to music like usual while doing some other stuff around the apartment. After a few hours of no trouble, I noticed that the "charging" icon wasn't lit up anymore - the laptop had stopped acknowledging the charger at some point. I couldn't find any kinks or anything in the power chord. Finally, I tried two other chords, but to no avail. No acknowledgement. So then the battery died not long after, and now I can't turn it on!

What could have happened? Can it be fixed? And if not, can some files I had on it that I hadn't gotten around to backing up on my external hard drive be recovered from it? I have very little tech knowledge at all, and I certainly don't have any complicated equipment. I don't mind if I have to get a new computer, it's just that I've been having a lot of trouble finding ones that don't run Windows 10 these days, and also I really want the music files off this one. Can anyone help?
 
Most likely the battery is dead (not discharged; dead). Is it under any warranty?

They can be a little spendy and you don't want to buy a new one until you know its the battery. I'd take it to a computer shop and have them plug in a known good battery and see what happens. Or, talk a friend with the same laptop into letting him borrow his battery so you can test.
 
I had the same problem with an HP laptop last year. The charger was defective -- the power light on the charger was on, but it wasn't actually working.
 
I will second the advice about being sure of whether the problem is the power supply. I had a similar problem, and thought it was the battery. A quick trip to a repair place showed that it was the charger

I priced one from the manufacturer -- and ended up buying one on eBay for 1/4 the amount.

If you can find a reputable seller, one with lots of sales and good reviews, you should be safe.
 
Order(s) of likelihood:

1) Battery corrupt or dead. Can you remove the battery and see if the laptop powers up just on the charger alone? If so, then it's a battery issue.

2) Defective charger. A little harder to diagnose, since you ran the battery flat. Easiest way to diagnose is to plug in another known-working charger and see if the laptop recognizes its presence. Try it without the battery, since, being flat, it would require a certain amount of time just charging before the battery would stop sucking so hard on the charger. One of those inexpensive universal replacement chargers with interchangeable tips would work.

C) Issues in the laptop itself (least likely, since it worked before the battery drained).

After all this, it could come down to something as simple as a broken wire on the plug that goes into the laptop, or the matching jack on the laptop is damaged.

Beanbag
 
If the battery is dead, the laptop would/should still turn on if a working charger is plugged in. (I have yet to encounter a laptop that wouldn't, no matter if the battery is in or out.)

Most likely, it's a broken charger cable/plug.

Next in likelihood is a problem within the charger.

Last, there could be a problem within the laptop itself that prevents the power to get where it needs to (I have seen this happen, and it's mostly too expensive to fix. Essentially, you'd have to replace the whole main board which comes down to getting a whole new laptop in cost).
 
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My Toshiba stopped charging, but it works fine on AC. I googled it, and there's a possible software fix you can try, but it didn't work for me. My solution was to simply get a battery backup at Staples and pretend it's a dektop. It's only a slight inconvenience since I backup everything to an external hard drive as well as the cloud. Anything important can be downloaded to my tablet and/or phone.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk
 
If the charger is like most with a barrel connector to the laptop and you don't have a multimeter to test the charger, you can use a car bulb to test the charger
Pick up one of these at the local servo
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Philips_12V_5W.jpg
And unbend the wires (gently) put one inside the barrel connector and the other on the outside and the bulb should light up if the charger is OK

That narrows it down to charger or laptop at least

I've found the charger itself is quite reliable, but the socket on the laptop sometimes fails, but the lead to the moulded plug to the laptop is the most unreliable link in the chain (often gently bending the lead near the plug back and forth will briefly make a connection)- if that proves to be the case often a replacement plug can be soldered onto the chargers lead for only a couple of dollars
 
Yeah, wrapped up pretty well. It's either the battery charger, battery itself, or charger port on the laptop.
 
Some Dells have an identification chip in the charger and won't work with ordinary chargers even when they have the correct voltage and a barrel connector that seems to fit.

Look into the end of the charger plug and if it has a tiny pin in the centre of the connector then you have one of those. These chargers have three (coaxial) wires inside the cable - two thicker ones to carry the power and a third thin one that carries the identification data.

The data doesn't do anything useful. It is merely a way of Dell forcing you to buy and use an expensive 'genuine' charger. There are, however, cheaper aftermarket chargers that spoof the same useless identification data - but they still cost more than the generic chargers.
 
ceptimus said:
Some Dells have an identification chip in the charger and won't work with ordinary chargers even when they have the correct voltage and a barrel connector that seems to fit.

Look into the end of the charger plug and if it has a tiny pin in the centre of the connector then you have one of those. These chargers have three (coaxial) wires inside the cable - two thicker ones to carry the power and a third thin one that carries the identification data.

The data doesn't do anything useful. It is merely a way of Dell forcing you to buy and use an expensive 'genuine' charger. There are, however, cheaper aftermarket chargers that spoof the same useless identification data - but they still cost more than the generic chargers.
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Interesting. I bought a generic charger a few years ago when I forgot the Dell one on a trip, but it worked ok. Until it stopped. I also have occasional "plugged in not charging" issues, which seem to be a known MS problem.
 
It may depend on the laptop but I've had trouble over the years with both bad connections at the very computer end of the adapter cable, and the jack in the computer itself. This is a very high stress point on a laptop, especially if you trip over the wire a few times. I've bodged a few of them together. My current HP has the end of a generic multi-voltage charger soldered in, and a replaceable plug, so when I trip over it it tends to pull the plug instead of breaking the wire.
 
Most laptops power port is a separate small board that can be easily replaced when faulty, look on ebay there's lots on there.
 
Wudang said:
Have you checked the fuse on the plug?
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What fuse ????


;)


Kidding aside: That's a purely British thing. Outside of your wonderful isles, there's no such thing on the plug (there are fuses within electronics equipment, but there's no easily accessible fuse on the plugs here in Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland, or the US of A [the countries I have bought electronic stuff]).
 
isissxn said:
Once again, I come to the reliable nerds here, a supplicant, seeking your wisdom. I have a Dell Elitebook running Windows 7 Professional, refurbished, haven't had it that long.
Click to expand...

I know that trouble - what you need is the Real Blokes' Fix.

I'll give you the steps in the correct order.

Strip some electrical wire.
Turn main power off. (very important!)
Unscrew wall socket.
Connect stripped wires to each wire in socket.
Connect other end of those wires to the positive and negative/neutral points on your PC. If you don't see them immediately, the - is the one that looks like a USB port and the + is at the back of your DVD reader.
Turn main back on. (Then off again quite fast!)
Disconnect wires and screw socket back in.
Claim insurance.
 
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