Hi Ron,
I have the Inspiron 1150. (I know it obsolete). The power cord works great. But I heard about the problems. You might also ask Richard why they cost so damn much!

Ron-

I am support analyst at Dell headquarters, and this blog was pointed out to me by Richard to take a look at. He also forwarded your email address on to me, so I’ll ping you there as well.

Firstly, I want to make sure everyone understands that the AC adapter we’re talking about is the same 90-watt adapter in use for most of our notebooks, and has been for over 3 years. As such, any problems with this adapter would not be 1501 specific.

Looking at the comments to the article you posted, the most striking feature about all the people posting is that there seems to be no *one* issue they are complaining about. For example:

Steve (feb17th) notes a problem with his adapter on his c510, which uses a different adapter altogether.

Leona (mar17) stated her AC adapter snapped off in her hand right after purchase. This is an unrelated incident, and should have been covered under warranty.

Martine (mar25) states the lead going into the adapter itself is defective, so that it won’t fit into the brick.

Jen (May23) had several problems with her notebook, the last of which was an adapter malfunction. It is unclear if it is a problem with the onboard socket or the adapter itself.

The comments are a smattering of many different problems. Since this adapter is the 90-watt adapter shipping with all Dell notebooks that require such an adapter, I am sure you can see that millions of these adapters are currently being used in the field. In many cases, when the type of malfunction you note here is happening, it is the result of plugging/unplugging the adapter in at an angle, which sometimes will deform either the socket on the system or the plug itself. Depending upon the damage, either an AC adapter replacement or a motherboard replacement is required.

There is no known systemic problem with these adapters or the 1501. Each case is the result of individual circumstances, as can be demonstrated by those commenting on the other article, and is not Dell specific in scope.

I recently wrote an article for Direct2Dell, showcasing a survey put out by our product engineers to gather information on the way people are using our AC adapters. The goal is to change the design of the product to better meet the needs of those using it. If you’d like to provide feedback to our product designers regarding these adapters, now is a golden opportunity:

Direct2Dell post

I hope this information is helpful, and I welcome any feedback you or your readers may be able to provide.

John
Dell Customer Advocate

Hello,

John (Dell Customer Advocate), I beg to differ. There *does* seem to be a systemic problem with this particular model of power supply (and yes, I do have an Inspiron 1501 - coincidence?)

I’ve had my Inspiron for about six months now and the power supply has just failed in exactly the same was as described by several of the commentators on the other blog post:

http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2006/12/16/dell-inspiron-1501-notebook-computer-ac-adapter-wont-stay-connected/

The problem is that there is no green light on the brick and the mains cable makes a crackling noise when plugged in to the brick or removed.

As I didn’t bother with an extended warranty over the original 3 months, I have ordered a new supply at the astronomical cost of £45 for the unit. (As an aside, I am told that it will take 10 days to ship - lol - 10 days to ship a power supply is hilarious!) I currently have a laptop I cannot use for up to 10 days due to the battery being dead.

With the comments on here, I am expecting the new unit will most likely fail.

How can you argue that there is no systemic failure of these units when so many individuals with these power supply units are claiming that they have failed? The specific comments you cite in your response *are* different to the main two problems (that of (a) the power supply not staying in the laptop and (b) the power supply failing) but equally, there are many comments that are not. The same as my specific problem are:

Owen Barr - July 19, 2007 @ 7:41 pm
rhiannon - August 24, 2007 @ 4:39 pm
Johna - October 15, 2007 @ 7:29 pm
drew - November 9, 2007 @ 6:34 pm
Treeintn - December 1, 2007 @ 1:43 pm

So, have Dell actually conducted any useful investigation into these power supplies? Perhaps determining the number of calls Dell have taken to customer support about these faulty units? What about the number of replacements shipped due to this problem?

Of course, you would claim there is no systemic problem because if there was, a recall would be required which would be expensive for Dell.

Any further comments?

Regards,

Fatman

I have owned my Dell Inspiron E1505 for about a year now and I am about to order my second AC adapter. The first one just quit working one day and the second one shut down but this time it starts beeping once plugged in. The cost is also ridiculous, the cost plus to have it shipped, it is close to $100.

I am also have the same malfunction with the AC power supply on my Inspiron E1705. The green LED goes out, and it begins beeping.

I use my laptop as my home PC, so its doesn’t get moved frequently. I would’ve expected the design to handle a lot more since the entire idea behind a laptop is for them to me mobile.

Also, my battery is also shot now (also a major disappointment), so I need to pretty much be plugged in constantly to use my computer. Now with this power supply failing, I never know when I’m going to be able to use my computer.

Emil

I also beg to differ with John. My second adapter for a Dell Inspiron 5150 has now failed and I am unable to use the computer at all since the battery has completely discharged. The Adapter green light does not come on and the adapter only beeps when I plug it in, The first went bad after about 1 year and now the second adapter has gone bad after one year. Dell has or had a problem with these adapters which they do not want to acknowlege. They need to do right by their customers!

I’m having the same problem with my E1505, the cord developed some exposed wires, which we taped up, and now it’s only working periodically and won’t charge at all. My battery has about a 20 minute life on it, so we have to keep it plugged in pretty much at all times. Luckily, we have two laptops so we can use the other charger for it, but it makes it hard to do our work when you can only use one at a time (and need both).

same problem here, first adaptor went about 3 months ago after two years monderate use. now the second has just given up the ghost. same problem, no green light and a beeping sound…….what to do? like most people i use mine for work and to be out of action for the week it takes to deliver is a nightmare.

any idea if they will replace the adaptor for free seeing as ive only had it 3 months?

So John at Dell how about youy stop avoiding the issue and realise that everyone has the same problem. its time you woke up and smellt the coffee, what you see here is the few people that have found this site and bothered to post on it, the problem im guessing is huge and if you pull up the stats of the numbers of replacements of this product, im sure you will see they are abnormally high. How about you actually make a product that works? instead of sending out an inferior product to me over and over?

My green light on my ac adapter has gone off and ac adapter has started beeping 2nd time this has happened. Im in iraq so it takes me 2 weeks to get a new one so thats 2 weeks twice that i havent been able to talk to family as much as i should have. Very displeased dell. Do some research and make better power chords. (XPS M1210)

I bought my dell laptop no more than 4 months ago, and the brick’s green light has gone out and simply beeps at me. No charge at all in the system. This just happened this morning, and I haven’t called Dell yet to make sure that they can replace this for FREE. There is no way anyone should be held responsible to replace what is clearly a manufacturer’s defect. Glad to know I’m not alone in this problem.

UPDATE: Just called Dell, super nice people. We identified this brick as being fried (plugged it into the wall alone and it still beeped. Easy to diagnose) and they said they would send out a replacement one for free on Monday. Easy. Pain that I can’t use my computer today, but that’s just the way it is today. I’ll have a new brick and cord in my hands on Tuesday.
He said that he had the same issue arrise last week, and they simply sent them a replacement brick and cord.

Thanks all, my power supply just started doing the same beeping / no juice thing tonight and now I know what’s up! Luckily the spouse also has a Dell so we have a spare power supply while I replace mine.

About to order my second adapter in four months. Very frustrated.

i have a inspiron e1705 and my ac adapter has the same problems when you plug it in it makes beeping noises…then if u ram it on the ground it starts working again which is very weird

same problem here. adapter just went out. green light is off and it just beeps. Inspiron 1501, 6 months old. Haven’t contacted Dell yet as I wanted to find out if there were any other people with similar situations online. Lo and behold…

Dear Anyone who knows how to use a notebook.
Personally i hate Dell with a passion but i have seen some clients miss use
their products too.I cant beileve that in many forums including this one that there are so many people that complain about products faulting.If you have used the unit for a few months i cant see why it fails so quickly. It should fail within a 7 day period .Are people using UPS’s and not $2 crappy surge protectors.Does anyone realise that when a notebook is kept with a battery in it and charged constantly that the battery unit will not hold charge as time goes past. Does everyone use the items according to the specs? BTW Dell is not only the Crappy Company

I have an e1705 and I too am having a problem in which the green light is out and the adapter just makes a high pitched beeping noise. I try to take good care of things and don’t think I gave the adapter any unnecessary abuse.

I have a dell 6000 and I have gone through 4 adaptors. The problem is with the connector that plugs into my laptop. For some reason, the connector loses its conductivity after a few months. I am wondering if anyone else has had this problem.

I am in the process of “shopping” for a new adapter as well as mine died 9 days after my warranty expired. I have an Inspiron E1505 and had noticed that the adapter had been acting up the last couple of days - if I jiggled the wire I could get it to work, but if I moved, I lost it again. It’s totally dead now and I am without my laptop.

I had this same exact issue last year with an XPS M-140. I’m not 100% sure if it’s the same adapter, but luckily that time, it died about a week BEFORE my warranty ran out.

All these issues CANNOT BE A COINCIDENCE!

We bought two identical E1505’s, within six months we had the two original adapters replaced with three new ones. The green light goes out, no charge. Period. An obvious design or manufacturing flaw…

Out of warrantee now but it has only been 6 months since the last replacement adapter, and it has failed. Of course, Dell insists that adapters and batteries are “consumable” products and I should expect them to fail. An “excalation” management team representative actually had the audacity to to tell me that “after all, electrical items can fail at any time.”

I’m calling Round Rock because their outsourced customer service obviously has been told, no warrantee, no service, no matter what…

It’s been about 9 months for my Inspiron E1705 and problems with my ac brick have brought me here. I thought I got a great deal on my laptop, but now I’m not so sure…

I never comment on message boards but this problem is driving me crazy too. My green light doesn’t light up either and replacement costs are rediculous. This is the first Dell that I have ever bought and the screen went black about 2 weeks after using it. I will NEVER buy a DELL again! grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 and have had similar problems to what has been described in previous posts. At the end of 2007 I purchased a new battery and AC adapter and thought everything would be fine. Not so, I’ve had flickering of the screen recently and today the power went off and onto battery. As I’m typing this I have jiggled the connection at the back of the laptop and I’m using power again. I’ve been into a few sites like this now and we all appear to be rushing off to buy new AC adapters or replace motherboards. Is it that the connection at the back of the laptops should be made more durable? Should we be asking Dell to strengthen the power pins and power sockets? I’m going to send this off to them but will probably not get any response.

I hope this has helped someone. For all of the frustration I see in blogs and sites about problems with Dell laptops I am wondering if I should try another brand when I wish to upgrade my laptop.

Cheers

Sue

Hello Sue,
I have had good luck with Gateway. Just a thought.
Regards, Ron

I have the same problem with my Inspiron 9300! I was happy with my laptop, but the customers service sucks! I will never buy another pc or laptop of Dell! There are so many people with the same problem, but you can not find an answer on Dells website (or any website at all).

Greets from Belgium

Same problem with my 5150. Plug in the adapter back and forth, pull battery out and in, sometimes it charges. Is the plug on the board bad? Next time i will by a mac.

Inspiron 9400. The battery lasted 12 months. I just replaced it last week and the power supply died today. No light, faint beeping. Planning to take a soldering iron to it.

i have an inspiron 9300 and am BEYOND frustrated. this laptop is on its 3rd battery and 2nd power cord. i don’t care what dell tries to tell its customers, there is still a problem with the power supply to their laptops and the battery/internal temps. i am typing this as fast as possible while i hold the power cord in place and pray that the battery is charging. it is obviously something to do with the ac jack, but this is also the 2nd dell laptop i’ve had with this problem and actually the motherboard of this laptop has already been replaced due to it getting fried by the extreme heat from the battery (yes, the same one that dell says there is no overheating issue with). i’m really at my wits end with dell and this $5000 laptop that is worth about $300 in my opinion. btw, i have 2 identical laptops and they BOTH have the exact same issues. despite this, dell insists there is no issue whatsoever with this model. i guess i was lucky enough to get the only 2 produced with these issues….i’m not sure how this has been allowed to go on for so long, but if anyone is aware of any lawsuits that may concern this issue, i would love to know about it. as a lawyer myself, i just may file my own. i just can’t understand how dell can produce laptops that must be handled like a newborn bady in order to not “break,” yet they market these same units for MANY purposes and understand that people buy laptops for the portability.

Inspiron E1705. Owned 2 years. Same problem. . . no green light.. . . .

The same systemic failure as everyone else. . . . I am looking for a universal 90 watt power supply. I definatly do not want the Dell power cord.

I have this issue aswell, apparently kensington offers a solution with thier 120 watt universal power supply. The 90 watt version does not come with the N19 Tip we E1705 users need. I have yet to test it since the bases NEX can’t stock anything useful, but if any of you are desperate, check the website and scoop one up. Could be well worth it if it doesnt have the same design flaws.

On that note, my brick work intermittently which means there is a connection inside that loose. I would recommend not opening a power supply unless you know what you are doing, but it may be fixable at home?

My company has had 3 of these power adapters go bad in the last year since they started upgrading their laptops to D8xx series. The IT guys just buy new ones and replace them, so that the issues go unreported. I think they have approximately 30 laptops with this power unit.

I’m concerned now, as I’d bought a Vostro 1500 with this power brick in the last year, as well as an Inspiron 1501 with the 65W variation, and I’ve had past problems with laptop power bricks going bad. So honestly, overall power brick quality is a big issue with me, especially when I’m now supporting a total of 3 laptops (one non-Dell) in my own home.

I did buy a 3 year warranty on those laptops, so hopefully everything is covered and not blamed on the user. But issues like this make me wonder about quality issues and future purchases.

Hi G,
Thanks for the info.

You people are all wrong!!! We are all stupid and abusive to our computers and Dell computers are PERFECT and without any flaw of any kind. The only problem Dell has is that every single one of their customers are idiots.

This is NOT a problem with the adapter– at least in my case. Dell 1505 died. Same thing as posted here. Plug in, green light goes out, no power– NADA - dead. However, we already have a 2nd power supply AND a 2nd battery. Guess what? Neither of those works either. Now if Dell tries to tell me that somehow, mysteriously, BOTH batteries and BOTH power supplies just happened to die at exactly the same time– they’re simply not telling the truth. Problem has to be internal, IMHO.

My solution will be to yank the HD out of this thing, make a drive image to a new HD and put that in a real notebook computer.

Hello Ginger and Jill,
Your comments brought a chuckle to my day.

Absolutely there is a problem with the 1501 adapter. My first, that came with the new laptop, failed within the first year. The replacement has now failed after two-and-a-half months. I have a friend with the same laptop - and similar experience. I suppose this is just “anecdotal” or “web rumor” or “urban myth.” Whatever it is, Mr. Dell Analyst, you’d better deal with it because your name is getting rather sh*t-smeared.

For those of you looking for universal power adapters, my Kensington 90W just went out with no charge light and a high pitched beeping noise. Somehow the Dell is just frying the charger no matter what type it is. I’m no technology expert but it seems to me that the Dell notebook must require a higher wattage or something of that nature. I highly doubt, contrary to all of this Dell expert knowledge floating around here, that it is just a coincidence that so many people are having the exact same problem. I also have an Inspiron 1505 by the way.

Oh and by the way, the tip about slamming the brick into the ground also has worked for the Kensington… At least until it shuts down completely.

I have Inspiron 9400 bought 9 months ago, green light of power card gone out. It costs me again $70. I have taken back to India, here their website is not working. No idea, where to buy.

I have the problem…..

dell inspiron 1501 (yes im aware thats its not being made)

but i was a heavy laptop user, although never abused the mobility of my laptop…
Then about a week ago my laptop died and i checked out the internet as to why it was cutting out so quickly and people said i was having fan problems… So i popped open the laptop cleaned out the fan and got rid of any dirt as suggested.

Put it back together and it was fine although next day my charger would not work, the green led light would not come on….

one thing i did do was put it in the freezer and funny enought it actually worked! plugged it in and sure enough my charger came back to life..
but it went again 3 days ago and since then it has been a struggling battle…..coming on occasionaly and dead for the rest of the time…

now its completely dead and id like to say thats a lot dell you wankers

I, too, have an Inspiron E1705. It is just over 1 year old, and it is under the extended warranty. About four months ago, I started hearing “cracking” noises that sounded electrical, and then five weeks ago, the green light on the brick starting turning off while in the laptop was in mid-use. The laptop would just die - it would not go to battery back-up or give any warning. When I checked, upon re-strat, the batter was 94% charged. I could make the light go back on by unplugging and replugging, but it would not stay on - eventually the computer would just abruptly shuit off..

Dell replaced the power cord and brick. The new one arrived on 5/26/08. No more cracking. Yesterday morning (6/27/08), the same problem occurred with the new brick - no light and sudden shut-off. As before, I could get the light to turn on by unpluggine and replugging. The shutoff has happened three times today. This last time, the light will not come on, no matter what I do. I am almost out of battery but had to express my frustration. I’ll call Dell and get another power cord and brick, but this does NOT inspire confidence, and it angers me that Dell says there is no problem with the adapter.

I too have a Dell Inspiron 1501 laptop. I’ve been luckier than most as I’ve had mine for just over a year and have not had to replace the chargeer. However………
I have had numerous problems with my charger brick in the last few months. It’s a very strange phenomenon. The power light will go out in the brick. The first time it happened I just let is sit , while occasionally trying to plug it back in to see if it would power up. About the time I was ready to call it quits (5 or 6 hours later) I plugged it in and , wala! Came back to life. Was good for about 2 weeks. Then it went out again. Same scenario and it came back to life. Now the first two times, I tried various outlets with the laptop attached and w/o with no luck. Since the second time it randomly goes out when changing outlets and I have discovered the WEIRDEST thing. If I unplug the charger from the laptop and the wall and then plug the charger back into the wall w/o the laptop connected it will instantly come back to life. Last night however I didn’t notice it was out until the battery was almost dead. I couldn’t get it to power up using this mysterious method, and figured it was down for good. I went to sleep and left the cord unplugged from the wall and the laptop. Woke up about 5 hours later and nothing. Messed with it for awhile trying various ways of plugging and unplugging it. Nothing. So I’m sitting there smoking a cig and cursing Dell while I left it plugged into the laptop but not the wall. I decided it crapped out for good. I gave it one more try plugging it into the wall while already attacthed to the laptop. Nada. I unplugged it from the laptop to try my “mysterious” method and plugged it BACK into the wall by itself. Wala, it works again.
Now I have read that these Dells are reported to have a known short problem in the power cord to brick part and that would seem logical given what I just explained. Either way , there is a VERY common problem we all share and Dell needs to man up and admit it.
I thought I would also share some sites I’ve found that sell 90W comparable Universal chargers for Dells for $30-$45. Here ya go and I hope it helps some. I’m going to buy 2 just to have on hand for the price of one from Dell. I will list Dells site at the bottom. They get $69.99 for ONE!

www.calcellular.com/lap-charger-pro.html

sterlingtek.com/new90wacadch1.html

www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=laptop+charger&x=0&y=0

accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&sku=310-7860

I have an e1705 and I too am having a problem in which the green light is out and the adapter just makes a high pitched beeping noise. I try to take good care of things and don’t think I gave the adapter any unnecessary abuse. I pulled the cord from the brick and it worked again for a few weeks. Not the thing is not blinking and gets HOT As Hell. I have had the computer for about 15 months, battery is down to 15 miutes no adaptor cord, i only use this unit at home. NOT VERY HAPPY WITH DELL!

I have an Inspiron 9300 and within the first year of owning the PC, I went through 3 AC adapters! My first one died completely after 4 months, and the next 2 were showing bare wires near the adapter plug within months of using. I used this laptop in college and had it plugged in most of the time but was suprised at how cheaply they were made. In total I’ve probably gone though 6 or 7 adapters in the last 3 years. Dell sucks and I refuse to pay $135 for a power cord.

One of my employees has the ‘no green light, beeping’ AC adaptor. It’s fried. So we took the adaptor from an identical laptop and plugged it into his laptop, that AC adaptor got fried when it was plugged in. CAN THE LAPTOP FRY THE ADAPTOR???

I haven’t had a problem with the brick, but like many of the posters above I have gone through 5 adapters in the five years I’ve had my Inspiron 5100 do to frayed wires near where it plugs into the computer. The good news is that you can buy replacement adapters through third-party vendors. I bought one through Simple Micro (http://www.simplemicro.com/laptop-ac-adapters/dell/) the last time. Other vendors may have them for less.

Now my Dell will not charge at all. The green charging light will flash or stay on for a couple of seconds if I jiggle the connection, but won’t stay on long enough to let me actually turn the computer on.

I’ve already vowed never to buy another Dell after experiencing their abysmal customer service (for the consumer division, anyway; corporate support seems to be fine). This is another nail in the coffin.