"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"- Worst AC Adapter Design Ever!

This just happened to my M1330. I e-mailed Dell support.

Hopefully a speedy and convenient solution can be made.

I am having the exact same problem on my five month old Vostro 1710. On this model anyway, it is NOT a motherboard problem. I'm still under warranty, so Dell sent a tech out to replace the motherboard and the power adapter. Brand new power adapter didn't solve the problem, so he went on to change out the motherboard. But once he got the system apart, he could see that the port where the adapter plugs in is NOT even part of the motherboard. It's connected to the plastic chassis underneath, by a couple of tiny plastic pieces, which had broken. Without those pieces to hold it in place, the port was loose and couldn't make a good connection anymore.

This is 100% a design flaw IMO...it doesn't take much to break those little plastic pieces. In my case, five months of normal usage (plugging and unplugging the power adapter once or twice a day) was enough to break the plastic and render the port inoperable.

My point being...this is NOT necessarily a motherboard problem, even though tech support seems to think it is.

could you tell me the phone number of the Dell Support from Mexico please ?

Saludos desde Puebla, Israel tengo el mismo problema y estoy investigando como resolverlo aunque creo que si hay que hablar con la gente de Dell .... podemos intercambiar informacion al respecto te parece? alejandro.serr@hotmail.com

Greetings and luck whit the issue

My studio has begun to do this recently, and I've only had it since April.

I had the same problem, My other Dell charger would work fine but the original one that came with the laptop would always throw an error message indicating that the Charger wasn't recognized. None of the suggestions on any of the forums worked.

So I held the power chord by the circular flex thing at the end, and pushed the power pin with force into the laptop, held it on for a few seconds - And now the laptop recognizes the adapter, charges and works fine! If you push the power pin slow and gently into the laptop, it doesnt recognize the adapter. I think the problem is either with the wires near the pin of the power chord, or with the adapter inside the laptop.

Try it, worked for me!

What you probably are experiencing is one of the too tiny wires right off the end of the plug going into the computer fraying internally. Even the outside of the casing will eventually split and fail given a bit of time. It is just simply a PISS POOR DESIGN DEFECT using those tiny little wires in a place subject to flexing and bending. Those power supplies are just plain junk and it will do any combination of not recognizing, charging or powering alone as the wire's contact gets less and less. When you get a new one carefully cut open the wire's casing you will see what I mean. A lot of it is caused by the way it exits the back so that no matter what you do there is often flex and tension on that plug due to it's foolish location. Set it on your lap (ha ha) and see how it rides against your knee or gets a nudge now and again. I have to wonder if it was all a response to copper going to ridiculous price extremes a couple years back. Look around and you will see how all new appliances suddenly have the bare minimum size wiring and that it is very noticeably thinner in many cases. CHEAP CHEAP CHEAP but in Dell's case it is worse than that with the crappy location and poor plug angle. Why not mount it on the side and with a 90 degree plug like this Acer I am using now. This one's wire is too small as well but no sign of falling apart yet.
One word of advice: If you need power supplies just buy the 20 dollar Chinese cheapos off Ebay. They are the same junk quality BUT AT LEAST YOU WON'T BE GIVING DELL ONE MORE DIME. Fwiw we buy a new "junk" power supply about ever 3 months and guess what, it's time to get another one since 3 days ago.

Same problem with my studio 1735, have bought new charger, very expensive new battery but still laptop does not charge battery. I have now determined that it must be the motherboard where the ac plugs in. this laptop has proved to be nothing but trouble. Come on Dell get your finger out and sort this obvious bad design out.

I am having the same problem with my studio 1735 and unfortunately my warranty ran out 7 days ago! I have tried to email them but I can't seem to get an email address because I need to log into my account and then their website just tells me I'm out of warranty and would I like to extend it. I think its pretty poor that you can't email them if you are out of warranty. That just says to me "we'll take your money and help you for 12 months then we don't want to know you". I have tried switching power supplies throughout my house, turning the power on and off, wiggling the cord, updating the bios, installing numerous windows updates, restarting the computer several times and also I've let the laptop cool down and still nothing works. Mine says that it is plugged in but not charging. My last try will be to call Dell Monday.