Laptop - Battery wouldn't charge, now won't work when plugged in

[Halphalphalp]

Alright, So I have a Dell Inspiron 1520. Its been very well taken care of, it doesn't get moved a lot, its not very old, etc.

About a week ago I noticed the battery would no longer charge. I thought, no big deal, batteries die, it happens. I was meaning to replace it but haven't gotten around to it yet.

For the time being I had to keep the laptop plugged into AC power. The battery went down to 0% charge, meaning if I accidentally unplugged the laptop it instantly shut off. But as long as I had it plugged in, no problems.

Today I turned it off at 2:00pm. I attempted to turn it back on at 3:00pm, and got this short little whirring noise, lights blinked on for a fraction of a second... then gone. Now when I hit the power button NOTHING happens. Its completely nonresponsive.

I double checked that it wasn't a bad wall outlet or something, but the outlet is fine.


I really need a quick solution to get this thing back online. Ive got college work on there that I desperately need. A partially written 20-page paper, notes from class, everything.

[Halphalphalp]

Also - something I just noticed. This past week, even when my laptop was shut off, when the AC power was plugged into it the "low battery" warning would blink. Now there is no blinking what-so-ever. Its as if its not plugged in.

[Geek-9pm]

External Power supply?
Try another power supply.
If the battery does not change to  60%, stop leaving it in the machine.

[Halphalphalp]

I don't quite understand what you're saying. Nothing is external. Its a laptop and I have an AC adapter cord that I plug into the wall.

I dont understand what you mean by 'try another power supply'.

[Geek-9pm]

Sorry, your power supply is shot. You should be able to remove the battery, plu it in and turn it on. In not, the internal power supply is out. It just might be the power cord, but that is about one in a hundred. 
Many Laptop PCs have an external power supply. But yours does not.

[manish07]

Check your laptops power supply wire.

[matsonusa]

Just to cover every base, some simple things to try.

Remove your battery and examine it.  If the thing has several "blade contacts" where it connects electrically to the laptop, try removing/installing the battery several times... about a dozen or so.  What this does is wipe the corrosion off the contacts.

Your laptop SHOULD power up without the battery, using only external power!  Find someone with a DVM (an electronics guy in the college lab) and measure the DC output of your power adapter without the laptop plugged in.  It should conform to the voltage specification on the power adapter body.

With a toothpick (something non-metalic) probe around GENTLY in the DC-IN receptacle on the laptop.  Is the DC-IN pin loose or wobbly?  Missing?

If you have all the system drivers from Dell, try removing and reinstalling the Power Management Driver.

Finally, any good college student with a laptop also owns a 2.5" external USB disk enclosure.  If all else fails, pop your drive out and use the enclosure to attach the disk to another PC's USB inlet.  Your classwork is now available.  (I've learned all this from owning laptops.  They're nice, but... like a Boy Scout, always "be prepared".)