driz's dashboard

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.

Don't be surprised if it comes back again. That power cord was purely designed to fail right at the plug where it goes into the computer. It frays both internally and / or externally until one of the wires breaks and it either stops charging, working or both. Real junk and the plug in the computer is no better. It get wallowed out from everyday use and it too can fail through lack of conductivity. Dell searched the universe to find a plug virtually no one has and its soldered to the motherboard which makes it very hard and expensive to repair. I have replaced my power supply at least 8 times in the last 3 years with a 1705 using the cheapos off ebay. They are no better but are $20 so we just bite the bullet. Dell really SUX.
From our experience watch out for the following. In short baby that plug and jack. Try not to let the power supply dangle and put ANY pressure on the jack . Try not to use it in your lap where you have the cursed straight out jack hit your knees or anything else that will bend or put any sort of tension on the plug. We try to run it on battery all we can and not use it plugged in any more than possible to keep wear and tear on the affected partes to a minimum. Sort of like walking with a prosthesis but it can be done and will get you by until it lives out its life. How did I find this question, simple: looking once more for anyone with a solution to this useless laptop. Next time try to get one with the plug on the side with a 90 degree plug so it tends to point in the direction along the side. Duhhhh, too bad Dell couldn't figure that out. The cheap batteries and chargers seem to be as good as the ones that came with my unit so why bother paying more for the same junk? "Dude, I'm gettin ANYTHING ELSE BUT A DELL" from now on.