[Relmutsie]

Ok, so I have a problem with my laptop battery; it isn't charging. I had the same problem with a previous battery (this is a school laptop so I got a free replacement). It was at a value of 4% battery life remaining. So when I plugged the charger in I expected it to charge, right? Well it didn't. It just stayed at 4%.

So I went to the technician's with it and he gave me a new battery. He told me to leave it on charge for 2 hours. I did. And until now it's worked fine. Now it's staying at a value (like 48%) and won't charge.

It's going down every time I accidentally move the charger.

It's worth mentioning that the power doesn't go down, when the charger's in either; it just stays the same.

Does anybody know what the problem is?

Intel(R) Celeron(R) M processor
1.60GHz
1.21 GHz, 504 MB of RAM

[Triple6]

If the laptop is powering down or switch from AC to battery by you moving the charger, its not clear from your statement, then either the end on the charger is damaged and is making poor contact or more likely the DC jack in the laptop is broken and needs to be re-soldered or replaced. Running the laptop with a broken DC jack can be very dangerous and result in unrepairable damage to the laptop.

[Relmutsie]

Perhaps you misunderstood. The charger's working fine. In fact it's running off the charger right now; the battery's pretty much useless.

[Triple6]

What did you mean by the following?

Originally Posted by Relmutsie

It's going down every time I accidentally move the charger.

[Relmutsie]

The charger comes out and the power goes down.

[Triple6]

Ok, so its not when you accidentally move the charge its when you deliberately remove the charger? And by "the power goes down" do you mean the laptop powers off or the battery charge starts to decrease?

[Relmutsie]

Charge decreases. Just like it would if you had no charger in really.

[Triple6]

Ok, and how long does the battery last for? Some Dell's have a battery calibration in the BIOS, use F2 during startup to see if yours does.

But being an old laptop and likely an old replacement battery, it might be just the battery can no longer hold a full charge.

[Triple6]

Originally Posted by Relmutsie

Charge decreases. Just like it would if you had no charger in really.

OK, I'm still a little confused. If you unplug the charger then of course it will act like the charger is not plugged in.

[Relmutsie]

Yeah, I only said that to confirm that it's not doing anything out of the ordinary other than refusing to charge.

On average it lasts about an hour and a half.

[Triple6]

And how long did it use to last? If the laptop has a battery calibration option in the BIOS try that or see if Dell provides one to download off their website by going to the support site and selecting your laptop to see the available downloads and guides.