PCA Forums

i have one here i think the power adapter went out but just not sure. there is what looks like a led light on the power block. if so is the light to show if there is power coming from the wall plug. the unit is a inspiron 1525 laptop. im not wanting to buy a new power block only to fine out its the plug on the motherboard as these people were told by best buy .the power plug on the laptop seems to be tight from what i can see.

Windows should say if its on AC or battier.

battery doa rigrt now in it

The little light on the brick is to show that the thing is supposedly functioning correctly, but won't tell you if the cord on the other end is bad. Your best bet would be to get a multimeter, set it to read 20 volts, and put one lead on the outside sleeve, then one on the inside sleeve, but be careful not to touch the tiny pin in the middle of the barrel: that is the dell data pin, not power. If you get 19 volts, it's probably a jack problem. Confirm would be to take the laptop apart, and look at the jack and test the leads on the board. Or you could borrow another Dell power brick.

thanks just found a deal for a Kensington K38047US Power Adapter With Tips & USB Port for Netbooks for $3.99 plus $4.99 shipping at this rate i take a chance -can always use a spair around here .

Yeah, late to the party. The light indicated if the brick is working and is always on. If the light is off the brick is dead.

You can buy those Kensington universal power adapters at Office Depot for $50. I've sent many clients over there to buy one when their bricks went dead. They work great.

Not a big fan of the Kensington bricks myself. The tips are too big, and with the clumsy customers I've seen, one wrong move (set the laptop down wrong) and there goes your jack. See them and have to repair them all the time. Of course, the Kensington bricks are about 60% of my laptop jack repairs... maybe I should be a huge fan

And on a side note, that Kensington universal you ordered is for Netbooks, not laptops. Probably 45-watt or less. I don't think it'll power that laptop. It needs a 65-watt power supply.

Our shop stocks and uses these Cooler Master Universal bricks. The tips aren't extraordinarily oversized like other universals, they're cheap, and do really well. Only downside being that most Dell's don't see them as 'official' bricks so won't charge the battery. In that case, we're also one of the few shops in town that stocks official OEM Dell power bricks, 65 and 95-watt bricks.

But I digress, off topic. Good luck on your laptop! If it ends up being a jack, I'll make you a really good deal on a repair

Power Supplies are pretty cheap nowadays BTW. I find them on Amazon and Buy.com:

$22 with shipping:
http://www.buy.com/prod/dell-inspiron-1 ... 43776.html

I used to use Laptops4Less.com but they've gotten some poor ratings on Resellerratings.com lately.

just used a frinds brick and it worked thank guys for your imput

{ sorry to interrupt, but,, }

can someone pls confirm that this one here is ok for my Dell Inspiron E1505?

http://www.buy.com/prod/new-ac-adapter- ... 27949.html

i was looking @ Dell's site not long ago, and they are so much more $$ there.

also, if something fubar-ed w/it, would that void my current warranty?

thank u.

For that price, you can find Genuine Dell PA-12's on Amazon. Example being

http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Charger-Prec ... 168&sr=8-3

You could also just search on Amazon for 'Dell PA-12' and come up with a lot of results. I would definitely go with an official Dell power supply over a cheap knockoff. Not saying there's anything wrong with the knockoffs, but the official Dell chargers are heavier, and seem to be built better.

To answer your question, pretty much any non-official accessory, if it messes with the laptop, will void the warranty, if they can prove it wasn't official.

oh , thank u for that; i did not even think to check out amazon,,

i could not find any that matched the #s on my current charger:

Model # LA65NS0-00
DP/N: DF263
PA-1650-06D3

except for this higher-priced one, ~ http://www.amazon.com/Dell-PA-12-AC-Not ... 83&sr=1-21

that would be it, then (?).

Any Dell PA-12 will work on any Dell 65-watt laptop. PA-12 is the real model number. They all put out the same voltage/wattage. The cheaper one I linked will work absolutely fine. The other numbers are more Dell internal codes than anything else.

aah, ok. thank u, GAsher