On Sat, 29 Jan 2011 12:24:18 +0000, T i m wrote:

Hi all,

I have asked elsewhere but I think this may be more an electronics than
computer question as such so:

A couple of years ago daughter b/f bought a Dell Inspiron 1545 laptop
and it has been running ok till just recently when his Mum caught the
power lead somehow.

From then on it still runs ok from the power adaptor / PSU but it
doesn't seem to want to charge the battery. What could be part of the
same issue is it now flashes the front power indicator with what looks
like 4 fast amber flashes and one longer white.

Going into the BIOS tells us that it thinks the battery is there and
'healthy' but is not charging and at 0%.

We tried another battery and psu from a different 1545 (that had a
broken DC socket) but that didn't change anything.

Yesterday, thinking it /could/ be a socket and where the tiny inner /
3rd pin connects (thinking it might be a 'sense' wire and a socket was
cheap etc) I changed it for him but again, no improvement.

I think it still runs from the battery but of course it's now flat
(coincidentally a mate is considering getting a Dell 1545 so we might be
able to do some tests g).

So, is there anything else we could do to try to work out what's going
on here please? I still have some test gear from my 'daze' as a support
tech (DMMs, scope, fc, bench PSU etc).

Cheers, T i m

Something broke inside around the power socket. Some strong light an a
20x magnifying visor might help you find the break.



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