hell's dell
 

well my brother broke his powersupply to his dell laptop some time ago. so for christmas i bought him a new power supply from targus, it states it works with his model of laptop.
the dell inspiron 5100.

well that one didn't work. the system would turn on for a few seconds and shut right off. this was a 65 watt power supply.

so i traded it in for the 90 watt version. still a similar result. i even tried removing the battery. the battery is completly dead, it was used and then the system sat around for 6 months.

the specs are 2.4Ghz P4, 512MB RAM and a ATI 7500 (maybe 8500) card. could it be needing more wattage? does dell do something tot he hardware to insure that only dell supplies are used? targus stated that both adapters should work with the laptop.

Maybe there's something wrong with the laptop? The targus adapters I've used have always been fine.

How did he break his power adapter?

This sounds like a power conection problem. . .

Let me guess... with the battery out and AC in the unit does not even turn on?

Best guess (based on what you have told us) is that no power is getting to the unit. This might be a DC board problem, Logic board problem, or AC adapter problem... and you have axed out the chance of it being an AC adapter problem.

Look for the light that comes on when you plug it in. Does it turn on? How about the battery charging light?

thats the thing, my brother is a complete dumbass. so no telling what physical damage may have happened to this system. the cable on the power connector really just wore out (well the wire leading to the connector) and it was not much to work with. Its fairly common i see it on alot of dells at work. However who is not to say he triped and it got ripped.

sadly i hope it is not a issue with the laptop, even though it is not mine. however it just might be. the adpter works fine with my compaq, both did.

the original adapter says nothing about the wattage, though many have told me that the 90watt version should work and was really what was needed.

realy him and my dad should have just tried to see if they could have gotten the power adapter replaced under manufacture warrenty. my dad hates those extended warenty deals, however i work in a service department so i know they are an ass saver (except in cases of extream stupidity and abuse)

i dont think it even charges. i could try sending it to service at work, but being a dell that just might not work.

really what i wanted to know was if anyone had issues with non dell adapters and their pentium IV dells

Even just standard use can cause some problems, it all depends on the solder holding the DC-in jack to the DC board (or logic board depending on which model you have).


As I expected...

I also work in a service department well.. a service repair depot to be exact. With laptops at least, everyone should get the extended warranty -- it's just stupid not to.

It's funny, this one time at work this client was talking to me on the phone about her computer. It was a CRT based iMac that was about three months out of it's first year warranty... she did not get AppleCare. Her CRT went south, and was going to cost her a few hundred bucks to replace... she was bitching to me (as if I could do something about it) saying that the computer industry is one big money grab, and that if built correctly they would not break down and cost so much to repair. I asked her why she did not get the extended warranty, and her reply was: "because, I believe that warranties are just another scam to get a few more bucks out of you...". I could not stop myself, and informed her that this entire repair would have been covered by the AppleCare extended warranty -- which would have not only cost her much less but in this case cost Apple a few bucks. And if that if she thinks that it's still a scam then there's not much more advice I could give her.

I'm not often that rude...

Yah, Dell won't let just anyone service their units... hehe.. but they are not as bad as Sony.



Good luck with this,
slackMeUp

I've got a very similar 5100 and I've been using an iGO Juice for a few months now without a problem. I think it is a 70W unit and the first time I booted with it, the BIOS complained, but I went ahead anyway and the laptop works fine.

we do have a direct to vendor type deal, like sony. it cost just $24 to send it out, even if it is direct to vendor.

as far as extended service plans, i totaly agree.

a guy had us look at his HP, our diagnostics cost $60. I first notcied it didn't turn on and it had a smell to it. something the person who took it in should have checked. I opened it up and noticed part of the main board had literaly caught fire. the guy was just 10 days outside the manufacture warrenty. I also told him with the service plan he would not have had to pay a damn thing at all, diagnostics are even covered. so he buys a new computer and makes the same mistake. i tried to tell him, but he wouldn't change his mind. he was also convinced his brother might even be able to repair the unit or salvage the other parts like CPU, memory and video card. at least the guy was not an asshole about it.