Recently active topics in Dell

I'm not sure if this is related to dell directly. but I had 2 unauthorize charges made to my bank acct named as 'DMI: Dell gift card round rock TX' I never made these transactions, i found out about this this morning when I was checking my account online. so I already call my bank and they will start the ppwk in order to get my credit back and I will be receiving a new card because of this... it's such a hassle to clean up the mess after those bad people tried to steal money from my account!

My computer recently displayed a "AC Power Adapter is not determined." message. I did not change anything, all I did was go to a friend's house and plug it in and it appeared there. Taking out battery and holding down power for 10 sec won't work. It appears everytime, and my battery is slowly being drained. Help!

I bought a Dell Battery for my XPS M140 because the one i got with my new computer had a 10 month shelf life! So on the 30th of June 2008 I made the purchase. I also purchased the next day delivery option which did not help at all. I went on vacation on the 4th of July 2008 to stay overseas. I informed my neighbor that a package might show up and my mother in law so they could keep an eye out. After I got back which was more then 21 days since I made the order Dell told me "too bad you didn't call before your 21 days expired from the day you ordered the battery, now we can't help you." We have exhausted every means of resources we know to get us to a manager that can understand our problem but no one in India can transfer us to the US or to anyone that can help. We are currently asking to speak to the Legal department but every time they transfer me it says "extension 0000 does not exist." Furthermore after the 3rd time that happened I asked specifically for the number not to be transferred but once again "extension 0000 does not exist" happened again. I want to speak to someone that can help me get to a solution. Does anybody here have their legal department number or any info that could help me? You can contact me at apliessi@gmail.com Thank you

I have a Dell XPS M1330. Recently, I had been having problems with the graphics and video driver on my computer. My screen will sometimes freeze and go to a screen that is black and has various different lines on it and then the computer will either shut down or recover.

I tried reinstalling the graphics driver, and am continuing to experience this problem.

I bought the computer last November 2007 -- so it is relatively new.

If you have any suggestions on how to fix this problem, please let me know.

I have a Dell XPS M1210 that just turned two years old.
After one year, my 6-cell battery started to falter, so I purchased a new 9-cell Dell battery. This worked fine until a couple of months ago when I noticed that my 65W adaptor was frayed. I bought a new 65W Dell adaptor and it worked well for about a week until I noticed that my battery wasn’t charging at times. If I was patient, or unplugged the adaptor and plugged it back in, the battery began charging and all was saved.

This lasted only a short time until my battery wouldn’t charge at all for long periods of time, and sometimes the computer wouldn’t turn on, even if plugged into the wall. I thought it might still be the adaptor, so I borrowed a fully functioning 90W Dell adaptor from a family member to test the system. This worked better, but still not great. When I removed the battery and started only from AC power, the functionality was also intermittent. Usually, if the computer actually started, I received the start-up error “The AC Adaptor Type could not be determined, etc. etc. etc.” After pressing F1, the computer booted, but if the battery wasn’t in, the computer didn’t usually last long before shutting off. Unsure if maybe the battery was the problem, I put the 6-cell battery back in, and it too wouldn’t charge, although (together with the 90W adaptor) my computer would at least start more consistently if plugged in. The error remained however, and sometimes the system stops recognizing power and switches to my ever dwindling battery power until the adaptor is recognized again.

I called Dell. No help. I checked Dell forums. No help.
I perused Google and it was far more helpful than Dell, yet yielded no results (beyond the usual, buy a new adaptor, buy a new battery [check, check]) except to flash the BIOS. So, I updated my BIOS from its A05 version to the A08, and anxiously awaited the reboot... when I received the adaptor error once again. I have run all fathomable diagnostics and everything comes back squeaky clean (except the battery/adaptor test, naturally).
Clearly, the battery isn’t the issue, the adaptor isn’t the issue, the BIOS is fine, and there isn’t any visible damage to the power jack on the system itself. Everything is intact and fully functioning. Just not as a single unit. The only other thing I can think of is the motherboard ... but the diagnostics come back clean, so ... I’m confused.

In sum:
Dell XPS M120
OS: Windows XP Media Center (latest SP ... 3, I think)
6-cell & 9-cell battery
65W adaptor (x 2) & 90W adaptor
BIOS A08

Any input, thoughts, ideas, additional confusion? I’ll take what I can get.

Thanks!!

In Nov 06 I ordered two computers. I called to set them up. One had broken button, the other had crashed and both had gone back. I then was talked into getting one computer which I needed two but, they were going to repair my daughters dell for nothing. Straight from the boss. Well that didn't happen and the two years of warranty on both computers I had to keep. I asked why as I only was getting the XPS 410 and would only need two years. But no they wouldn't let me I had to keep 4 years and they wouldn't repair my 14 year old's daughters. So fighting and who gets it went on for 5 weeks and that one went back. Then got another one. All are hard drives motherboards this on brand new computer. I ask if I can change models. NO. I ask if I can get the remote never came NO. I ask them why, why and nowhere I am in the middle of loosing my home to predator lending, I ask girl not to delete anything on one of my repairs with them as I am in Civil Suit but, she does. The information gone. My business is gone. I started other business paid for trials loose them. Now its ended up to be 2009 and I am on my fifth or fourth or sixth dell XPS and this one comes refurbished. Did I pay for a new ONE? with no DVI setup only two DVA? No blue button two plug into just the white TV. I called four five times for an adapter which I couldn't get around here. I am disabled and don't drive and so it was in the third fourth week and they want the old system back. I ordered the adapter from DEll I called dell and wrote to dell but, no response only they want the other computer returned. Through all this two years I end up with this computer which is crashing and on my 5th modem from Verizon they aren't happy. I have had 2 guys come to my house. I had electric looked at and you know what nothing wrong but, getting a 1700 dollar XPS 410 Refurbished. Now they did away with them. I don't think there any good at least my 6 arent' this one at least came with the memory and vista ready the others, some did some didn't, come as ordered. And they would argue with me but, for some reason I kept the packing slips. I I think It is time for court as this is not going to crash on me every week. I work online so have gone deep in the hole as I waited mths for a replacement. What would anyone else do? Any suggestions? I am totally at a loss of words. And proof for saving my home. lookn4work

My battery for my Dell Inspiron 1520 will not charge. My AC Adapter is fine and powering the laptop, but the battery, that IS connected (I have taken it out and put it back in) has remained at 0% for the last few days. I recently posted this complaint in another thread, but after reading so many similar complaints, I realized I should make my own. I now understand the warranty for a battery is 1 year, but I have a few very frustrating issues with this:
First, I purchased the 3 year extended warranty assuming all parts would be included- this is, to me, common sense regardless of whether the battery is considered a consumable product or not.
Second, I have had this laptop for only 13 and half months! This feels terrible- a product which I have had a 1 year warranty for (which I assumed was 3 years) has died a month and a half after it would have been freely replaced. I am a poor college student, and this laptop was expensive enough when I bought it!
And last, I have rarely used this battery! I have taken it on only 4-5 car trips, and I can not even recall the last time (minus right now) the battery went to 0%, as I ALWAYS have it plugged in; in fact, I would surmise that if I were to use my battery as much as the average user (certainly more than me) then this battery probably would have died long ago when it was actually under its separate and special warranty! Should I be penalized for rarely using what appears to be a bad product? After all, minus the aforementioned car rides, the only time I've really used the battery is when the charger has accidentally been unplugged! As I responded in the other thread, if a product is going to be considered consumable, perhaps it should do its job more than a handful of times before malfunctioning!
I do hope this is a different problem altogether and not my battery, and if so, I apologize, but, after reading many similar situations, the only problem here seems to be with the battery, and this is very frustrating!

Hi all,

I have brand new Inspiron 1520.
Battery fully charged, when I unplug the charger from the wall, but let the plug in the Inspiron for a while (let's say a night), when I startup my computer, I get the message "The AC power adapter type cannot be determined. Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge. Please connect a Dell 90W AC adapter or higher for best system operation" (needless to say that the power adapter IS a Dell 90W...).
Unplugging and replugging the adapter solves the problem.

I have the same message under Windows when I unplug the adapter from the wall, leaving the plug on the computer side while the commuter is running (to go from one room to another for eg.)

I have contacted Dell support, they asked me to reflash the Bios (already done) then, they sent me an new power adapter : same problem... now they are talking about a mainboard replacement !

While Googling for a solution I've seen this is a very common and long term issue on Dell computers.

Are there any people around here that had the same issue and managed to have Dell correct it ?

I have a Dell Preferred Account and I have a large amount of Available credit. When I wanted to buy something off the web site with my AVAILABLE CREDIT, the idiot on the other end of the phone ran a credit check with out my permission and then tells me that I am not approved, which doesnt make any sense when on my monthly invoice it clearly states AVAILABLE CREDIT. The four different people and 1 manager could barely speak english and tell me that they do a credit check on everybody that wants to buy something and every time you buy something even if you have a preferred account. That is really messed up! I dont remember the last time I went shopping with my Visa and the clerk at the till did a credit check before I could buy my groceries!!! I think Dell should inform all of their customers about this and that when you have available credit on your account you actually dont have any !!!

AC adapters keep dying. The first one died about a year ago (right after my warranty expired), and since then I've gone through ~10-15 PA-10 adapters. Sometimes two months might go by without one dying, but then three will die in the span of a week. There is no warning - I never get messages that the adapter isn't recognized or anything like that. I'll just wake up (it almost always seems to happen overnight while the laptop is turned off or in standby/hibernate) and the light will be off on the adapter. A couple times recently I've noticed the dead adapters have been very hot. Before dying, they seem to charge my battery just fine except I did have the battery stop holding a charge a couple months back, but in hindsight I wonder whether I had replaced a dead PA-10 with a PA-12 from my XPS laptop (I ended up replacing the battery). I also have a Latitude which also uses the PA-10's and have sometimes used the same adapter interchangeably with the Inspiron and Latitude, and the adapters only die while plugged into the Inspiron. Help?

I bought my laptop (XPS M1330) at Best Buy. It never worked properly and shuts down all the time due to hardware problems. Dell refuses any warranty and says that best Buy is responsible. What a shame.

The DVD drive in my XPS M1530 laptop doesn't work anymore...
The eject button still works and I can hear it mumble when I insert a CD but Windows Vista can't detect it.

I tried the following without success:

* uninstalling the DVD drive and letting Vista find its driver on reboot
* downloading the driver from Dell's support page and installing it again
* Installing another OS (Ubuntu, Windows XP) to find out if it's only Vista related. Both couldn't make the drive work

it's been only 7 months since I bought it and I don't use it that much. I noticed the problem when I had to burn an ISO file.