Can't Get the Battery to Charge on a Dell Inspiron 2200

w201 · 2014-01-01 16:36:55

After installing Arch on an old Dell Inspiron that was running WinXP the battery stopped charging. The power adapter and jack that commonly fail on Dells are both okay. I'm running XFCE4, shows 5% battery left. I don't think XFCE4 is misreporting how much charge the battery has because if I unplug the power source it reports battery critically low.

acpi -i shows:

Battery 0: Unknown, 5%
Battery 0: design capacity 4400mAh, last full capacity 4122 mAh = 93%

When I first noticed this I didn't think it could be software related, but then did a search and found that a few other archers had reported the same problem. BIOS shows a healthy battery. I tried one archer's suggestion to allow the battery charge in BIOS for a few minutes. If it's an arch setup issue, the battery would show that it's charging after several minutes. So it sat there for about 20 minutes and did not increase from a 5% charge. The battery is not bad, like I said, it was charging consitently when running WinXP a few days ago.

nd7rmn8 · 2014-01-01 16:59:20

the center pin on dell chargers is used to verify to the laptop that it is a genuine dell charger. if the connection on that center pin is broken, the laptop will run directly off the charger, and will refuse to actually charge the battery. you can try booting a livecd if winxp is no longer available and see if it charges to verify its not a software issue.

if you have some skills with a soldering iron, you can repair the connection. it most likely failed right behind the connector inside the cable, due to constantly moving it around over time. thats where mine have failed. afterwards, i used a hot glue gun after i soldered it, to protect it from strain. doesnt look pretty, but it works. also functions as an electrical insulator.

ewaller · 2014-01-01 17:10:53

nd7rmn8 wrote:

i used a hot glue gun after i soldered it, to protect it from strain. doesnt look pretty, but it works. also functions as an electrical insulator.

Is that not why they invented heat shrink tubing?

Last edited by ewaller (2014-01-01 17:11:29)

w201 · 2014-01-01 18:07:41

nd7rmn8 wrote:

the center pin on dell chargers is used to verify to the laptop that it is a genuine dell charger. if the connection on that center pin is broken, the laptop will run directly off the charger, and will refuse to actually charge the battery.... you can try booting a livecd if winxp is no longer available and see if it charges to verify its not a software issue....

I have a new dell XPS and its charger has a center pin, but on this old Dell Inspiron there is no center pin on the charger.

nd7rmn8 · 2014-01-01 18:52:08

ewaller wrote:

Is that not why they invented heat shrink tubing?

i guess... i just like playing with hot glue... and it does give a certain structural integrity as well.

w201 wrote:

I have a new dell XPS and its charger has a center pin, but on this old Dell Inspiron there is no center pin on the charger.

maybe dell was not consistent with the make of their chargers, all the ones ive seen have a center pin, but they definitely could have changed things. then again, maybe the center pin broke off. have you tried swapping chargers? that is if they are compatible.

w201 · 2014-01-01 20:09:42

nd7rmn8 wrote:

maybe dell was not consistent with the make of their chargers, all the ones ive seen have a center pin, but they definitely could have changed things. then again, maybe the center pin broke off. have you tried swapping chargers? that is if they are compatible.

They use different chargers. You can see the Inspiron in the image below that there's no center pin, and it was charging with WinXP, which is why I think it's an Arch issue. Perhaps there's a kernel module that needs to be loaded that will fix the issue? IDK, but I don't think it's hardware related. The charger tip does seem a bit worn though.

Dell XPS

Dell Inspiron

Arch Linux

#1 2014-01-01 16:36:55

Can't Get the Battery to Charge on a Dell Inspiron 2200

#2 2014-01-01 16:59:20

Re: Can't Get the Battery to Charge on a Dell Inspiron 2200

#3 2014-01-01 17:10:53

Re: Can't Get the Battery to Charge on a Dell Inspiron 2200

#4 2014-01-01 18:07:41

Re: Can't Get the Battery to Charge on a Dell Inspiron 2200

#5 2014-01-01 18:52:08

Re: Can't Get the Battery to Charge on a Dell Inspiron 2200

#6 2014-01-01 20:09:42

Re: Can't Get the Battery to Charge on a Dell Inspiron 2200

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