I plugged in a defective OEM AC supply to my Dell M1710 laptop, and the screen went black.
I think it fried something... don't know if it is the Motherboard or daughterboard or what.
But now the battery (which was just fine before) won't take a charge.
And the laptop will not boot up with the new OEM AC supply I have.
But the really weird thing is: once the laptop is booted up the AC supply will keep it going indefinitely. But it will not charge the battery. Any ideas what is broken and how much to fix it?
Thanks,
sbunke@comcast.net

I also meant to add:
The battery still is at 51% and is staying there, because the laptop is running off the power supply.

But if I remove the battery while the laptop is plugged in, the laptop shuts off.

Hmmm.

????

So you bought an OEM power supply, from Dell, I'd presume... And it's flaky. Have you bothered to call Dell about this problem? Sounds like RMA time to me....

Actually, I think the power supply is working fine. At least it had been for a week... until I plugged in the old power supply. Then the problems started.
I think it fried a transitor in the charging system on the motherboard. If there is anyway I can avoid having the motherboard replaced, I would be very interested, obviously.
The thing I can't understand is why does the power supply keep the laptop running, only when the battery is in?
And why can't the power supply boot the laptop with or without the battery?
Thanks for your response.

If I had access to the circuit diagrams, I could probably figure out which SMD component had failed. But I don't, so looks like a call / trip to Dell to me.

I can speculate on how the charging circuit is built, and my first guess would be that the charging circuit powers the battery, which in turn powers the PC. It is possible that the battery charging circuit is built into the battery, but gets bypassed if the unit is on AC power. All just speculation on my part. My Vaio runs just fine without a battery.

Make a good backup before you send it to Dell.

Thanks, croc!
The HD was recently wiped and has a new installed XP OS, so no need to BU.
Every laptop I've ever had runs wo the battery, as long as it is plugged in.
Freakish.
I am kind of half hoping it resets itself, like a thermocouple.
Thanks again for your response.

I have the same issue, have tried differing power supplies, stil it shouts at me that it does not recongnise the power supply that is going into the motherboard and yet it is the original power supply PLUS i have tried a new one and it does not recognise it either!?

The battery powers down and eventually dies, I am using a smaller dell power supply 90w that works when the unit is powered off and it charges the battery..

kinda clumsy, but the trickle feed works, until I can find out what is wrong with the 130W supply!?

Cheers,