Dell Inspiron 15 Battery and Screen Issue

[Cecil]

I've had a number of problems with my Inspiron 15-3537.
   Firstly just a month or two after I got it, the battery wouldn't charge. If it was plugged in, then the charge would stabilize, but not increase. I bought a second battery, hoping that this would fix the issue. I had the same problem. Thinking that I got a faulty battery, I bought another battery. Yet again the problem persisted. It's obvious that there's no problem with the cord, and I highly doubt that all three batteries are defective; there must be a problem with the computer. However, I've no clue what the problem is or how to fix it. I've tried the popular idea of starting the computer without the battery and then again with the battery, but that didn't work. No other solutions that I've found are for this particular issue.
   Secondly,  fairly often, there will be a green line going down across the middle of my screen. I can usually make this go away by shutting and reopening the lid, but other times I have to restart the computer to make the line go away.
   Thirdly, there is another problem that will ocassionally happen. My computer will boot up as normal, but the mouse remains frozen at the center of the screen. Again, I can solve this by restarting the computer. However, of course, it all happens again at some point or another.

Any ideas on what I should do? Are there any solutions? Do I complain to Dell? Or do I just look at getting a new computer?

[Geek-9pm]

The laptop has an external power supply.
(Image from Amazon.com)
It is possible the power supply is weak, but I don't think so. Inside the laptop there are more regulators and snuff for the changing circuit. It takes an experienced tech to replace those semiconductor chips.
Here is as post on the Dell site that sounds like your problem.
http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19580985
In the posts above, no suggestion is made as to a hardware failure. Rather they seem to think something is wrong with the monitor software. You may wish to use a multimeter and verify the voltages at the battery and the adapter.
Does that help any?

[Cecil]

Not quite... concerning the battery issue:

When plugged in: The laptop tells me that it is plugged in AND charging. However, the percent charge that is shown to me never goes up.

When not plugged in: The computer registers that it has been unplugged, and the charge drops fairly rapidly.

I conclude that the adapter is working just fine. As I previously stated, the laptop will run without the battery so long as it is plugged in. I doubt that the batteries are faulty, but I'm not 100% sure.

[Geek-9pm]

Contact Dell and  get the service formation. There is a specification for the the battery, the AC adapter and the charging circuit. The battery monitor is a real-time  differential analyzer and has t o be properly calibrated at the factory. What that means is that a 1 % in component drift can make  a large error in output reading. In othker words, it can fail to report that battery is charging. After the battery has been plugged in for overnight, measure the terminal voltage and compare it to the specs given by Dell.
I am not abler to give you specific information. The problem is the method used to measure charge rate. If you have some laboratory equipment  you can measure the charge your self using tables published by battery makers.
This deference explains some of the issues:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
Lithium-ion batteries have a very flat voltage discharge. The estimate of change is measured by input current from the adapter to the battery over time. Aftrer about an hoer the current drops to some level below 1000 ma. Afterthree hours is is down to 250 ma and near full charge.

[Cecil]

All right, it seems you were right  ; the meter on my desktop was incorrect. It read my battery as being empty and put my computer to sleep. I awoke it, and it worked just fine; my computer was not out of power.

Now that that's resolved, there's just one last thing:
Am I to assume that I can not fix the meter to properly display how much power the battery has stored?