Question:My Dell XCMRD Battery will not charge. My Dell AC Adapteris fine and powering the laptop, but the battery, that IS connected (I have taken it out and put it back in) has remained at 0% for the last few days. I recently posted this complaint in another thread, but after reading so many similar complaints, I realized I should make my own. I now understand the warranty for a battery is 1 year, but I have a few very frustrating issues with this:

First, I purchased the 3 year extended warranty assuming all parts would be included- this is, to me, common sense regardless of whether the battery is considered a consumable product or not.

Second, I have had this laptop for only 13 and half months! This feels terrible- a product which I have had a 1 year warranty for (which I assumed was 3 years) has died a month and a half after it would have been freely replaced. I am a poor college student, and this laptop was expensive enough when I bought it!

And last, I have rarely used this Dell XCMRD I have taken it on only 4-5 car trips, and I can not even recall the last time (minus right now) the battery went to 0%, as I ALWAYS have it plugged in; in fact, I would surmise that if I were to use my battery as much as the average user (certainly more than me) then this battery probably would have died long ago when it was actually under its separate and special warranty! Should I be penalized for rarely using what appears to be a bad product? After all, minus the aforementioned car rides, the only time I’ve really used the battery is when the charger has accidentally been unplugged! As I responded in the other thread, if a product is going to be considered consumable, perhaps it should do its job more than a handful of times before malfunctioning!

I do hope this is a different problem altogether and not my battery, and if so, I apologize, but, after reading many similar situations, the only problem here seems to be with the laptop battery, and this is very frustrating!”

Answer1:
Trouble Shooting for Unrecognized Adapter
1. Check along the wire and the box for any signs of abrasion or physical damage.
2.Check the connection between the power cord and the Adapter box. Also the status LED’s color.
3.Check the port in the laptop for any signs of damage and see if the Adapter connector is tight or wiggles.
4. Connect the Adapter to the computer and open up BIOS and check whether both the battery and the adapter is recognized or it gives an unrecognized adapter error.
5. Reseat the battery and the laptop ac Adapter power cord and check if it works.
6. Try flashing the BIOS once if possible, because I recall a bug in one of the older inspiron notebooks in which the adapter was recognized after the BIOS was flashed, but they would have most probably got it fixed by now.
If all of the above steps dont fix the problem, the Adapter has probably gone bad, Contact Dell Tech Support.

Answer2:
they do have somethnig built in to detect if you are using a non-Dell battery, ergo you would not receive messages like “Battery cannot be identified” at boot up, and a warning that the system won’t charge the XCMRD Battery It is simply a ploy to ensure users buy Dell batteries at their inflated price. It’s also known as anti-competitive behaviour in the business world.

Just so you know, they incorporate the same system with the power adaptor. If you use a non-Dell one, it will state that it cannot determine the power adaptor type and then let you know that the laptop will run slowly and will not carge your battery. Another way to make sure you behave and buy only Dell spares. Incidentally, with the adaptor it knows if it’s a Dell one because Dell use the centre pin of the adaptor jack connector to send a 2.5V ID signal to the laptop. The positive and negative of the 19V supply is on the inside and outside of the metal barrel of the jack plug. Internal pin is solely for ID signal.

I’m afraid the only recourse is to purchase a Dell adaptor if you wish for the XCMRD to charge. I’d recommend a second-hand one from eBay. Try to buy the highest wattage one you can.”

http://www.laptop-adapter-shop.com