Monte Asbury's dashboard

Maybe so, but I think mine lasted four or five years.

I think your adapter's going bad. If it keeps happening, try replacing the adapter and cords. Fixed mine completely, and even gave a little more life to the old battery. – Monte Asbury, on April 09, 2009 16:52

Try Ebay. You should be able to find a new battery for less than half that. Look on the battery for the Type number; search for that and/or for "battery Dell 1520" – Monte Asbury, on April 09, 2009 16:51

I solved the problem by replacing the adapter and the battery with new ones from Ebay. I was getting the non-recognition of charger message on bootup with increasing regularity. Sometimes it helped to remove the battery and unplug the charger, let them both cool down, and start again. But only sometimes. I had feared for the connector, since I'd had one fail in a Toshiba, and this one has taken some yanks. But this Inspiron is more rugged in the chassis than my earlier Toshiba was, and apparently the connector is fine.

I haven't had a single failure since I made this replacement. I'm now able to charge my old battery, as well, so I'm guessing it was the adapter/cord/charger that was no longer working correctly, even though it looked fine. Cost was, for battery and charger and cords, maybe, $55.