VERY WEIRD laptop battery problems!

[JutTG]

I just bought a condition A refurbished Dell Inspiron 7000 notebook... everything is great, except for one problem.. THE BATTERY..

Ok, I know the problem is not in the battery, as I can charge it in 1 drive, but not the other (it has 2 battery drives...)....

Here is whats up... It can charge in the DVD/floppy drive bay when I take it out, but WONT charge in the drive dedicated to the battery! I am running win2000pro...And when I go to power management, look at batteries.. It says the exact same thing when I have the battery in 1 bay the in another.. It says the battery is charging, and shows a percentage... The light on the front of the laptop flashes indicating the battery is charging in both situations.. I have tried charging with the laptop on and the laptop off.. I have charged it for 7 hours straight in the dedicated bay, but no progress AT ALL... What could this be?

Can anyone PLEASE help!

 

[bacillus]

suggest you look at a bios update in case that bug has been ironed out with a newer bios!
do also remember that the 7000 isn't fully ACPI compliant.

 

[JutTG]

This may be a retarded question to you but...

What does ACPI compliant mean?

Not sure if its a BIOS bug or not.. I've never heard anything about this problem... Ive contacted the online vendor I bought it from, but they dont work on sundays.

 

[bacillus]

What does ACPI compliant mean?

advanced configuration & power interface

suggest you go to the dell d/load site & look at the text that accompanies each bios for that laptop to see if such a bug has been identified & fixed.

 

[Bovinicus]

That is a pretty strange problem... I would suggest waiting until you get in contact wil Dell if the BIOS update doesn't do anything for you. They would know more about the problem than anyone else. This is especially true since most all laptops are proprietary. Perhaps they can replace the charger and leave the rest of your laptop in tact for free.

 

[bigguy1]

I had the same problem on a Latitude ran the harware tool that came with the Laptop to no avail. Called Dell and they sent out a new motherboard the next day then a tech called as to when I wanted him to come over and replace the board. He did so and the unit is working like a champ now. BTW mine was also a referb unit.

 

[corkyg]

Follow bigguy1's advice and call Dell. Sounds to me like the charging controller circuit on the motherboard is not working properly. It is supposed to sense and switch between bays as required, but apparently it is not doing so.