Dell Vostro AC Power Adapter Error
Text:
The AC power adapter wattage and type cannot be determined.
The battery may not charge.
The system will adjust the performance to match the power available.Please connect a Dell 65W AC adapter or greater for best system performance.
To resolve this issue, try to reseat the power adapter.
Strike the F3 key (before the F1 or F2 key) if you do not want to see power warning message again.
Strike the F1 key to continue, F2 to run the setup utility
Press F5 to run onboard diagnostics.
As I said here:
Two or three times since I’ve received the laptop, I would get weird BIOS messages, saying something to the effect that “the battery is not found or not supported.” I wish I would have captured this image to find out more about what it means, but since pressing F3 to ignore has been working, I’ve been content with that thus far. Next time I get it, I’ll be sure to capture it and followup with that error message.
I’m not sure what causes it. I’m using the Dell 65W AC Adapter that came with the notebook. If I leave the power adapter as it is and reboot, the same error comes up. If I disconnect it and reconnect it, the error no longer comes up. I wonder if it’s safe to press F3 and ignore it…
Tom Said,
December 12, 2007 @ 10:44 pm
I get the same message every time i startup my laptop, but I think it is because the power adapter I am using is the wrong voltage. The battery doesn’t charge on mine at all, but I take it your battery is still charging after it starts up?
Raybdbomb Said,
December 12, 2007 @ 10:45 pm
Hmm, I actually haven’t checked.
Ghaleon Said,
December 13, 2007 @ 7:16 am
dude you shouldnt have bought a dell.
Raybdbomb Said,
December 13, 2007 @ 10:23 am
Yea right, when it comes to notebooks you can’t beat Dell’s deals.
piratepete Said,
December 13, 2007 @ 7:11 pm
a deal is only good if it doesn’t end in heartache….
Brandon Said,
December 14, 2007 @ 9:44 am
I’ve had some wierd issues with the adaptor before on my vostro as well. I haven’t had the bios issue, but I did have a windows message pop up while I was using my laptop that said something to the effect that the adapter wasn’t the proper one and that the battery wouldn’t charge untill I installed the proper adapter. Unplug, replug… problem went away. It has only happened once or twice, so I am not too worried about it yet… yet…
Raybdbomb Said,
December 15, 2007 @ 8:22 pm
Sounds like a different manifestation of the same issue.
Miranda Said,
December 21, 2007 @ 11:41 am
My XPS M140 was giving me both – BIOS error and Windows error. My factory-supplied adapter completely died, so I got an off-brand replacement and it’s doing the same thing again. The new adapter is still alive for now.
Raybdbomb Said,
December 21, 2007 @ 2:55 pm
Weird…
BSnow Said,
January 7, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
I contacted Dell today for the same issue and was advised my adapter has a short.If you check the connection and there is no fray in the cord this is probably your issue also.I’ve only had the laptop 4 months and their sending a replacement under warranty.Getting this error could destroy your motherboard and also you will notice CPU will be at 100%.My hubby is an IT so he checked the taskbar when the error would appear.Good Luck…
Raybdbomb Said,
January 7, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
Thanks for the info BSnow. The message doesn’t occur to me while in Windows, only during POST. I’m not sure it’s the same issue.
Doyo Said,
February 16, 2008 @ 2:38 am
Hay I am getting the same problem, by the way thank you for taking the photo…I am expecting technician to show the problem unfortunatly when I tried again it the error did not appear.
Did you manage to solve the probelm?
Raybdbomb Said,
February 16, 2008 @ 4:08 am
No man, it still happens intermittently.
bdswink Said,
July 12, 2008 @ 10:15 am
I am geting the same problem with my dell inspiron 1521. Dell has not been very helpfull in dealing with this problem. Dude, why did I buy a Dell? O ya good deals i forgot.
Sancezz Said,
September 27, 2008 @ 3:40 am
I have this problem with my Dell 6400; only my issue seems to be far more advanced. The power supply no longer reliably charges the battery (sometimes it will, but more than likely it won’t), and it’s very very temperemental about how the cable is positioned. If i move my laptop, normally it comes up as disconnected and running on battery power and I have to fiddle with the cable positioning to get it back on mains power. Annoying.
I already had this problem a few weeks after first getting my laptop, and Dell replaced the power adapter under warranty, however, I don’t think my laptop is under warranty anymore. That means I’m going to have to shell out £35 for a new adapter. It’s just annoying that Dell make such low quality power supplies.
Raybdbomb Said,
September 27, 2008 @ 9:22 am
I have a buddy with the 6400 with the same exact issue. Must be a model specific problem.
brianbo Said,
November 16, 2008 @ 10:01 am
I have the 1521. The problem could be your adapter but if the battery does not charge then it is the motherboard. From other issues on the web, the motherboard is connected to the power adapter. There is NO replacement for the connector except the motherboard. Maybe, a computer repair shop can solder it ??? (cost $100- 200)
DELL STINKS.
On my 1521, I had adapter and motherboard replaced 6 months into owning it and was told those parts have 1 year warranty. Now, 14 months into owning another crappy DELL they say the part replaced 9 months ago are not covered because I did not pay for it.
It is a known issue that they will not fix. As was the MAXTOR hard drives that caused my DELL to crash every 6 months for 3 years until I replaced the HD. My desktop crashed durign the 1 year warranty and the guy that replaced the 1521 motherboard said they were very aware of the bad Maxtor HD.
I will NEVER BUY a DELL.as I am 0 for 2 with them.
Never Buy a DELL. There is a reason why they have deals. Buy a cheap one and if it breaks who cares.then buy another one for 400-500 bucks and hopefully get 4 years out of it.
tonilo Said,
September 18, 2009 @ 4:21 pm
hello everybody…
same problem in xps m1330 out of warranty…
the problem for me i sthe same and the cpu is so underperformanced…(2,2ghz becomes in0,6ghz…)
solution…to use RM clock utility progrma that change the voltage of the cpu, or reflash the bios each time that i use the laptop…
yeah, dell stinks
Alex Said,
September 29, 2009 @ 5:40 am
I have this same problem but I turned the error message off a while back. Does anyone know how to reactivate the error message so that I can report it accurately to Dell? (I think it was the same as above but my laptop is now behaving differently so I want to see if anything else is going wrong or the message has changed etc).
Robert Christe Said,
October 6, 2009 @ 12:22 am
To get the error message back you need to press F2 or F12 while booting and go into setup, adaptors and turn the error back on. I believe the problem is a chip in the adapter that dells the PC its a dell adapter. I recently bought a non dell adapter and started getting the error in the picture above. There is a chip in the new adapter but apparently it does not give the system the correct information. so really the fix is to buy a dell genuine adapter…
Is anyone having this issue with a dell specific adapter…I have an inspiron 6400
PB33 Said,
October 8, 2009 @ 12:30 pm
I have the same deal with my Dell Studio 17 laptop, replaced the power adapter under warranty, and still have the same issue. So the power adapter is NOT the issue. Battery only now charges to 95%, which might be the cause, as it’s the next thing to be returned. Interesting about the ongoing issue, especially since it’s not specific to the Dell Studio series.
Sirjin Said,
October 26, 2009 @ 9:32 pm
I have two Dell Inspiron 1525 and one of them is giving me the same problem with the power adapter error message. I also own an older Dell Inspiron 6000 and it works just fine. I used the 2 good power adapter, one from the 6000 and the other from the ‘good’ 1525 and it still gave me the same error message? Still trying to figure this out. Sounds like Dell support from reading the previous threads are ‘worthless’.
eurogirl Said,
December 16, 2009 @ 11:38 am
im also having the same problem w/ my Dell inspiron 1525 laptop.
about 4 weeks ago my AC adapter got mixed up w/ a friends (we both own Dells, just different versions). my friend finally sent mine back to me because she said her laptop started giving her the “unable to determine adapter type so won’t charge battery” message. Now my laptop is saying the same thing.
this adapter is the one that came w/ the laptop when i bought it about 1.5 years ago. my warranty just recently expired so i can’t afford the small fortune to call tech help. besides, ive had a few other problems w/ my Dell in the past and there tech help really sucks. they’ve ‘fixed’ the problem but usually only for a short period and its a pain to speak to them. none of the tech speaks clear english.
help???
eurogirl Said,
December 16, 2009 @ 11:43 am
also, it said to try to ‘reseat’ the adapter. that means unplug then replug right? well, ive done that numerous times and it hasn’t helped, or changed.
BarbadosGuy Said,
December 18, 2009 @ 3:07 pm
Apparently there is a small chip in the power brink that is supposed to communicate with the BIOS in the Dell (mine is he XPS M1330) via the centre pin of the AC Adapter.
Now here is the DESIGN FLAW, the small cable breaks with normal use and while it does not affect power delivery to the laptop, it does however disrupts information transfer from the chip. Since the BIOS only checks this when power is applied, wiggling the wire while connected won’t help, it is fairly hit or miss to unplug, wiggle, replug and hope it works.
I found a solution online which effectively involves destroying your power adapter (which has no screws) and risking your motherboard by a bad solder job. Other than this, the only way to fix this (at this point) is to buy a new adapter. In my case I know that it is not a mother board problem as I have two identical adapters, one works the other does not.
Question is – why doesn’t somebody write a BIOS fix which allows you to disable the adapter check and assume that all is well with it. We know DELL is not going to do it, after all they sell THOUSANDS of replacement adapters and motherboards in order to “fix” this problem. But I am sure some brilliant mind out there in compterland can figure out how to hack it good.
WW Said,
March 11, 2010 @ 1:30 pm
Just had this problem on a 20 day old Inspiron. I was able to reproduce by fitting the DC plug (into the laptop) s l o w l y. And I theorise, either,
1)the tolerence between the BIOS and the transformer is so slight that when a 100% circuit is not made, the BIOS assumes the wrong wattage. or
2) the sampling frequency of the BIOS beats the 100% connection and comes up with a false error. (When working correctly, response to battery charge is pretty rapid)
In any case, it looks like the warning/error message is only a message, the battery appears to be charging AND Dell is replacing the adapter pdq under warranty.
JoeP Said,
June 16, 2010 @ 8:11 pm
“I was able to reproduce by fitting the DC plug (into the laptop) s l o w l y.”
Based on the comment above, I plugged the original adapter into my Inspiron 1525 very quickly and the battery charged for the first time in weeks. I’m hoping that this is the solution I’ve sought.
Alan Said,
August 22, 2010 @ 8:52 am
I’ve had similar problemwith two Dell Vostro 1500′s. I have the message periodically. I took an ohm meter to measure the output DC (should be about 19.5 volts). Have extra adapters and they all have the same output. My daughter was getting this message as was I inconsistently on our two different machines. Have a third Vostro (exact same–bought all three at same time) that my son has. I think he had the problem as well. Clearly, a consistent manufacturing problem. Will consider the replace adapter option though it doesn’t seem to be the solution as much as the bios reflash option. I do know that replugging in or switching adapters sometimes makes the message go away. But based on other comments, the simple act of replugging may be resolving it. Maybe some residual static electricity or some other thing is the issue. It is difficult to pinpoint. Hmmm…
Dan Said,
December 15, 2010 @ 2:54 pm
Hi I have a DELL Vostro 1500 Laptop, I have the same screen message, when i turn on my laptop, How I Reseat the AC adapter?¿
There is a solution for this issue?¿
Please, any help will be well received.
siimo Said,
October 21, 2011 @ 4:15 pm
aussi j’ai le méme probléme avec un DELL vostro 1015 et le méme méssage s’affiche c’est quoi la solution svp
Dell Inspiron 1525 Charger, Dell Inspiron 1526 Charger, Dell PA-10 Charger Said,
November 9, 2011 @ 8:15 am
I’ll immediately grasp your rss as I can not in finding your e-mail subscription link or newsletter service. Do you have any? Kindly allow me understand so that I may subscribe. Thanks.