Why doesn't my computer recognize my battery?

I have the same problem on 2 different laptops using a different adapter. Tried flashing the BIOS as recommended by Dell, still same error, batteries does charge, is just the message at startup that is bothering us.

I had this problem for a few months but I ignored it because the battery was charging OK. However after a while I had problems with the computer freezing up and the display could not keep up with the keyboard input (and I am not a fast typist!). I removed the battery, ran only on AC and these problems disappeared. I would buy a new battery except that my daughter had exactly the same problems with her Inspiron 1501 and Dell told her it needed a new motherboard. Fortunately hers was still under warranty whereas mine expired a month ago. My question is - is it the battery or the motherboard that is dying?

Could be either. If the laptop is no longer under warranty, I would strongly suggest you get rid of it and buy a non-Dell replacement. I recommend Acer. Acer laptops allow the use of any power adapters and batteries without any nonsense of not charging the battery or slowing down the system as punishment for not buying their overpriced spares, like Dell does.

You will otherwise spend the upcoming years throwing more and more good money after bad as other weaknesses cause failure. Common failures are motherboard dying, batteries failing to be recognised and needing replacement, and adapters failing to be recognised and needing replacement.

I agree get a differnt brand join one of the class action suits against dell on the adapter battery problem - then never buy dell again.

I have the same problem with the battery not being recognized. It takes a charge and I don't get the red battery light just the annoying press any key to continue at startup. I also get the slow down on the typing but only does it at certain times for some reason. I have reformatted a few times and have changed the hard drive and never seemed to have any problems until I started using the updates. Now I have driver issues I can't figure out other than hitting F8 at startup until I get to the startup options screen where it allows me to start up using unsigned driver signatures which was has only been there for maybe a couple of months now. I'm thinking the updates are screwing things up. I'm going to reformat again soon but need a big enough hard drive to transfer all my music and movies to so it's going to be a while cause I don't have the money for one right now. I'm thinking when it wipes everything out or I do from DOS it will fix things till I update again. Another issue I have been having the past few weeks is my wireless tray icon and my sound icon keep disappearing unless I start up using the unsigned driver option like I said before. It's all just a pain in the ass. I should've never got rid of my Acer but wanted something newer and got a good deal on this one NIB for $300. I hope some of this helps you out there. I really think Microsoft is causing the issues and not Dell but we will see.

This happened to me a few weeks ago. I found the answer at Dell.com in the support section. I am sorry. I cannot find the post again, so I cannot give you the link. But, I can tell you that you need to go to Dell.com and download the latest BIOS for your laptop model - even though the BIOS download has a date that is older than your computer.

I have an Inspiron 1501 so...
I downloaded the Win1501263.EXE file.
I doudble-clicked on it.
A DOS window opened.
Some files were created in the same directory as the EXE file.
A small window openeds that tracked the progress of the update. (Be patient even though it looks like nothing is happening!)
It took a couple of minutes for the update and them my computer rebooted.
I did not get the message when my computer restarted.

Good luck!

I get this error on boot, but the computer will boot and run off the battery anyway, and it's apparently being charged, according to both the system tray indicator and the fact that it hasn't run out of juice. The lights on the battery don't light up, but the battery charging indicator on the screen hinge does when the power cord is plugged in.

Oh, and this started happening after I'd been getting errors for a few weeks about the laptop not recognizing the power cable -- usually when it was plugged in but not firmly.

Laptop is a Latitude 131L.

Any ideas?

THE exact message is "Warning: the battery cannot be identified. This system will be unable to charge this battery."

Updating the bios is supposed to be the fix.

I also had where it would not recognize ( early on ) my AC power adapter.
Dell fixed that by making a change in my registry.

I AM VERY DISSATISFIED - dell is selling JUNK!!
My sister's laptop had to have its motherboard replaced.
Mine has had numerous problems from day one.

It also does not have the battery it is supposed to have installed in it according to the specs for my machine. I am going to take this up with the store where I bought it and I might be returning it to them thanks to a very GOOD return policy. My laptop is out of warranty - but used rarely as it is a backup computer and the screen quality/ text hurts my eyes.

This laptop is an Inspiron 1501. I have had clarity of text issues from the beginning which were never resolved. I had the "car plug adapter" create a problem similar to the battery issue. Dell tried to update my bios one other time but it did not take and I didnt have time to spend a million hours with Dell foreign support to try to resolve it. There is also a "cant understand their tech support" issue too - plus they need to know more than what the "script" says to help me -- as I am computer literate, and not the average caller.

I would strongly suggest you join a class action suit as these computer are DEFECTIVE ! I also would boycott DELL as they also give NO tech support after the initial warranty period, whereas you would not have this issue if you bought HP -- and those customers ( HP ) are satisfied customers.

You want to go under, Dell ??? Putting out this JUNK will put you in bankruptcy with some of the other companies of the past.

BOYCOTT DELL if they dont want to FIX their junk!

PS
When I start up my computer, I get the message - "my battery IS charging normally but reaching the end of its life."

I do not believe this battery has reached the end of its life, as that would mean they have another issue as this battery was never used hard.

This computer is Plugged in and used Plugged in almost all the time. The way i got this error was by "hitting" a wrong option ( I am sure ) when the plug was accidentally knocked out and the computer went down due to depleted battery life. This is probably what happened to the others as the plug does not fit that tightly and something that can easily occur.

AND, NO, I did not try the bio update but will and if it works will get back to everyone. Some said this didnt work. I have tried "system restore" to an earlier time but that didnt fix it either. After I make sure everything is OFF and/or updated on my computer, I was going to try restoring the computer to original condition.

I had this problem and updating the BIOS worked wonders!

I had the same problem with my Vostro - Twice! The first time the battery wasn't recognized was while the computer was under warranty and they replaced the motherboard (about a year ago). Last week I have the same "battery not identified" message and am now being told that I have to replace the motherboard AGAIN at a cost of over $500. I'll never buy Dell again. Ever. What a scam. Three motherboards on one computer within two years. I'm surprised there isn't a class action on this problem

HI friends
Please try this steps
try charging the computer battery without turning it on for atleast 8 hours then please update the system BIOS
use the following link "http://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/Win1501263.EXE"
that will help resolve your issue. if this didnot resolve the issue please reply to my post i will check for options and also please letme know are where exactly that issue is happing is it windows environment or outside OS

I'm unable to run the BIOS update. I downloaded Win1501263.EXE and tried to run the program. Various files were created, however, another window will pop up (named "Phoenix WinPhlash"). It states, "Cannot load driver C:\Users\Philip\Desktop\bios\PHLASHNT.SYS. Please check your accounts, if you have no administrator privilege. Please login again! Access is denided. Error Code:5."

The problem is that I have an administrator account. I restarted my computer and tried to run the program again but still unsuccessful. Any suggestions?

thank my dear friend using the advice.
I would like to inform you that
if you are performing BIOS update then you must have Administrator rights.
if that doesnot work then try updating the bios by booting from safe mode in windows
to boot to safe mode tap F8 key on your keyboard at DELL logo
and then chose the option as

Safe Mode and hit enter.
please Logon to windows using the admintrator account.
then run bios update.
i am sure that will definately resolve...
also lemme inform you that DELL representatives donot entertain Non-DELL batteries or any third party battery,just as Human toch i explained you the steps which I know. ALL the best

I am having the same problem with an Inspirion 1525. It is a little over a year old, running Vista. I am getting the "does not recognize the battery" message at startup, and when I'm running it runs fine off AC, but it says "plugged in, not charging." And I have not changed the battery, it is still using the original Dell battery. This message just appeared a week or two ago.

I have attempted to run the Win1501263.EXE file, but am having exactly the same problem as Philip -- I am the administrator on this computer and it will not run because it claims I do not have administrator privileges. I tried running the program from safe mode and I get exactly the same error message.

Not happy about this right now, I've been told by others that Dell quality has gone downhill and not to buy them anymore, but my Dell desktop is going on 4 years old and is still running great, so I ignored this advice. If I have to replace this laptop, I'm not likely to buy another Dell at this point. This computer is not old enough to be breaking on me yet.

Sorry to see that .
I only tell where you can buy the replacement one--Inspiron 1501 Batteryand Inspirion 1525 Battery

BIO UPDATING
I FINALLY got my dell bios to update! Not sure how I did it ( as it was done about 3-4 months ago ) but might have run the bio update program from "command prompt" by using one of the suggestions I found online.

My battery is now "officially" dead but at least my computer recognizes the sucker! lol This is the same battery that was barely used as this computer was almost always used plugged up. I think the CORD that does not fit tightly and is inclined to fall out, might be part of the battery dying issue along with these systems running too hot.

( please note -- dell could not get the bios update program to work back last OCT, so possibly the secret is running it in Command prompt, as I previously received the error about Adm Rights also -- and I am the administrator )

Again -- the power cord that will NOT stay in, is, I think, part of the Dell and battery dying issue. I know it was what started the " not recognizing the battery " message, because that is what happened to cause me to click on a wrong option that popped up, starting this " NoT recognizing" message on start up.

ON BATTERIES
I am seriously thinking of buying a third party battery which costs about a 3rd of the cost of one if purchased from Dell. It will last as Long or longer than the original battery supplied with my dell, which I am sure was defective OR made Defective by this cord or overheating issue, as the computer definitely gets hot.

Hopefully, my Dell is not Rigged to reject a 3rd party battery as noted by many.

People who had Dells before and got "3 yrs plus" from their batteries just think these batteries are defective, as I do. Dell needs to do something about these issues, or, like me, they will NOT be recommending Dells to others and buying HPs. If you have a Defect, Dell, come clean and make your customers SATISFIED customers!

That said .. that is what I am planning on doing -- no more Dell Junk for me! Buying another brand!!

BUT ... Mohd, thank you very much for trying to help. Your posts are very polite and informative, your links helpful. And it also shows Dell is at a little concerned with its dissatisfied customers!

Actually Mohd is a large part of the problem. Not him personally but Dell outsources ALL of it's customer support to India or some other third world country the day your warranty expires. At best they can barely get out a few broken English phrases and we are expected to follow their instructions. We are being racist if we comment on their broken English so it is a no win situation. If you want to buy a NEW Dell product by all means you will get someone so red white and blue it will make you puke. Obviously, since I am here, I too am having Dell problems with my laptop. I have already had to throw away a $1500 television I bought from Dell, literally one month after the one year warranty expired, no one could repair them. Dell told me the best thing to do was buy another one. Once this hunk of junk expires all together, I will NEVER buy a single item from Dell again. My toner cartridges from Dell are $79 a piece for each color so times 4 is over $300. I get them off eBay for $16 each. They are nothing but a ripoff. NEVER EVER buy anything from Dell.

Sounds like either a bad inspiron 1501 ac adapter or a bad dell inspiron 1501 battery. anyone you know with the same model adapter you could test with? Any chance this machine is still under some kind of warranty?
you can buy new one from http://www.laptopbatteryinc.com.au