"You have got to be kidding me" or "Third complaint against Dell in 48 hours"

Tek7

Tek7

CGA President, Tribe of Judah Founder & President
Staff member
Okay, so I unplugged my AC adapter from the wall socket--but not from the notebook--when I went to bed this morning at 6 a.m. (after spending 2 hours and 20 minutes on the phone with Dell support).

So I look down in the bottom right corner of the screen this afternoon and notice the notebook is on battery power. "Oops!" I think, "I better plug in."

But when I plugged in, I got the following error message:

"The AC power adapter type cannot be determined. Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge. Please connect a Dell 90W AC adapter or higher for best system operation."

I can't catch a blasted break.

I already searched for possible fixes and wasn't able to find any besides calling Dell and asking them to ship a replacement.

AHHHHHHHHH! :mad:
 
If it were a normal PC you could buy a regular replacement adapter, but with Dells there is a pole in the middle of the laptop end of the adapter that tells the computer the charger is a Dell charger, and will operate correctly with it.

Dude. I'm never buying a Dell.
 
Odale said:
Dude. I'm never buying a Dell.
Click to expand...
Nor am I, after all this is done.

Fortunately, re-flashing the BIOS with the latest update fixed the problem (even though I had already installed the latest update before the error ever cropped up). I have no idea why it fixed the problem, but it did.

The Dell tech who walked me through the steps was helpful, so I have to give them some credit on this one. It still strikes me as strange that a user would have to flash the BIOS on a laptop to resolve an error involving a power adapter, though.

Oh well. Problem solved.

EDIT: Post #4,600!
 
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