i already wrote a long article here

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...et-4175522638/

in addition to the above. when i got this top it had a battery that didn't register, no charge, and no ac adapter

i bought a cheap AC adapter from local store, had power batt was still not recognized

i bought a bat: new batt (a cheapo but had dell id) was recognized but DRAINED, no charge

i returned cheap AC adapter, bought a dell PA-14 (90w), now bios sees AC power as dell.

new batt charged up great

old batt did charge, little slower than new, but had orange flashing light. right pad near keyboard felt warm. i took out old bad pressed led test: only 3 lights on, and flashed (new, all on, no flash). HOWEVER. after reaching %95 old batt kept charging, never reached %100 - never stopped charing, so after a while i took it out

SO WARNING on BATT: buy right AC charger, and if you see orange it's probably burning out the charging circuit inside the laptop (why it's suspiciously warm on right when bad batt is charging) so take it out before it does any harm !!

Great that you got the laptop working again.

Yes, Dell power adapters are "smart" i.e they contain a memory chip and if the laptop can not read the data from the device it will not charge the battery. However, the laptop will still run just fine. It has happened to me a couple of times..

right, per say, however

these AC adapters claim to be chargers for Dell D510 and are not, and buying one and finding out later it's a lie can cause further wrong purchases and a significant waste of time

really i think the D510 has no "battery charger" in it, likely most laptops don't or hardly do.

why it "denies" the wrong charger is without a volt/amp (and maybe cycle) match it might cause a fire or ruin a batter or the internal "charger" (not really a charger)

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use your head. if you buy a Sears batt charger (or any brand) it charges any compatible battery of any brand: because it's a REAL charger. you don't have a real charger if you can't charge but a single kind of battery: you have an intermittent power pack, which is cheap

i understand in a small laptop and to hold down cost they do that, and only by small revision do some newer laptops work with "generic chargers" (that aren't chargers mind you)

it doesn't deny the charger because it's not Dell. it denies it to protect you from damaging the system: and the proper dell charger can be found for about the same price