Dell AC adapter unknown - lets find out why

[@Sawickipedia]

The replacement cable took about 3 weeks to arrive and works without issue. The only difference being the wire colours, on the original red was for +ve and on the replacement white is +ve.

[@parplus2556]

I have 2 Dells (E7250 and E7450) that have the AC adapter unknown issue. Adapters are Dell OEM and they work fine on other laptops. Found an old PRO3X E-docking station and both laptops charge, BIOS indicate correct voltage, and perform faster. This method bypasses the AC port on the laptop. This -E-dock works with all E-series laptops up to E7470. Dell 7480 and up uses newer USB-c docking technology. NOTE: The dock requires a 90W adapter to operate.

[@amindavid11]

Have you tried desoldering the ic that sends the signal to the motherboard from the charger and soldering it directly to the input of the laptop? That way you could use any brand of charger. Would love a video on this

[@vlearmoes7012]

My adapter is going back to the suply shop for a different model Thanks for the video

[@igordolovary4254]

Thank You so much! In russian language have a proverb "Net nichego boleye postoyannogo, chem vremennoye" It looks like: A thing created for a short period of time will remain for a long time.

[@subs4794]

There needs to be a class action lawsuit for Dell's defective design, as well as some way to force them to redesign the power bricks to have a removeable cable on power output side for the sake of the fking planet. Product planned obsolescence is a crime against humanity and there needs to be regulations to against this form of corporate greed.

[@Wahinies]

Support the right to repair, spearheaded by the Rossmann group. It's even worse with Apple products which Louis Rossmann and his outfit primarily work on.

[@TheDailyMemesShow]

Fucking well said. I've got the same problem, and I'd rather slam open the mother effing power adapter than buying another one from Dell.

[@nuklear8]

My M17 R3 is now charging thankyou for the guide👌

[@7x779]

Was the performance incredibly slower before you fixed the charger? Mind seems to be horrible and the message implies that the computer will slow down the CPU if it does not know what wattage power supply is

[@Sawickipedia]

It's quite possible the system will slow down if it thinks it's not receiving enough power

[@sourabhuwusingh]

Same was the case with mine and turns out the jack was the issue as in the video. I did the hack with a glue gun and soldered the middle connection and everything works fine now. It was having power issues earlier so the processor was throttling. This is a great example of planned obselecence and how big companies try to screw us. A simple wire breaks and now your whole laptop is unusable

[@7x779]

@@Sawickipedia I used CPUz And confirmed it was slowing the CPU down To less than half, With a faulty and also a generic non-genuine Dell Power supply. It's struggled to play KZbin video at 480P was miserable. I just got a new Genuine Dell power supply now it runs at full speed, Can play KZbin 1080P.

[@hardikmaurya7080]

The same happened with me and also I got it repaired but in the process somehow the circuit in the power brick for the sense pin got damaged

[@andrejs0tube]

Thanks a lot! I repeate your guide and now notebook working fine. I have little different model but similar issue.

[@tangwadivine-nq6mz]

Thank you for this

[@valsarff6525]

First off, look on the brick. They are ALL cheap power supplies from China. Now.. I'm guessing it was just over a decade ago that I had to researdh this for a couple weeks or so because the center pin was a new thing exclusive to Dell. Keep in mind this is old information, but they had a chip just inside the laptop jack that measured the center pin for a voltage drop. As I recall it was normally 6 volts then, and the wires were bundle wrapped around under the insulation like a cable for TV. After a bit of flexing they would start to break. Eventually so many broke that it still carried voltage but resistance increased showing a voltage drop that the computer picked up and started throwing error messages. Those who called Dell and had an OEM brick were told, in order of repeat call-ins, you need a new battery, then told you need a new mother board and finally a new brick. It was ingenious because the same problem was so subtle it would manifest problems differently on peoples various machines, appearing to be different problems but it was all the same. It took nearly two weeks of searching before I realized these were all the same problem. One dude bipassed the chip inside the laptop but I didn't attempt that. I just soldered all the broken wires together into a blob, taped it up and was good to go. At that time they also had a timer of some sort in the battery pack. After so many charges the battery wouldn't accept any more charges. It didn't matter if it was still good or not. Their excuse was safety, but only an idiot would believe that. All of the above of course were timed to act up just outside of the warranty period. And if that wasn't enough insult, if you used XP's disc scan/repair that Microsoft built into the OS it triggered corruption of the Dell master Boot Record. You were dead in the water then unless you knew how to fix it yourself. That was my last Dell and I refused to work on them after that. Judging from your video they have cleaned up at least some of their act. Good Videio btw thank you.

[@werejiggy4433]

Huh, didn't know that center pin was totally necessary for the PC to sense. Got an old D630 that has no option in bios to just use if it doesn't sense. Annoying, nothing wrong with the dell pack other than that stupid pin on that one too.

[@jamierose6347]

Hello, is changing the charger will help on solving the problem?

[@adisebesan4756]

The same issue at my E5440, the sensor line is interrupted, twisted for the moment and started back charging. Unfortunately the cable comes with another charger.

[@jaybutnotjay]

Yeah I could do that butttttt now Twisting it doesn’t work

[@GSXRMVDUCRD]

Thanks for the great video and explanation. My barrel connector ended up like yours when I was diagnosing the exposed positive and negative wires. You said the outside of the barrel is ground, but you mean negative, correct? The center pin is ground I think.

[@adiliraliyev5882]

Thanks, helped me to solve my troubled adapter case. Thanks.

[@ydoucare55]

The Latitude E5000 series laptops are riddled with power issues in general. I have a stack of dead ones (mostly E5450) all who either don't power on at all, don't charge, or don't recognize the AC adapter, but they're all board level issues (not adapter or barrel jack related).

[@Wahinies]

Ahhh I am discouraged now because I am waiting for an input jack on an E5570 that won't recognize any charger :( Dell definitely does not build them like they used to.

[@Stephenasare672]

I have same Issue with my E5450

[@octaviochisi3144]

Hello, a query, I have a dell inspirion 15 5000, the charging pin failed and I changed it to another, I soldered it and now it appears unkown and the battery does not charge this at zero, which may be before the charger and the battery were good, only the charging pin helps ...

[@Ikobeel]

Heyy thanks for shariiing. I decided never to buy a dell laptop again after watching this. I have the same "unknown ac adaptor" problem. The thing is mine says plugged in and "charging" but the percentage only increases by 1 after a few hours, which means it's charging but realllly slowly. I tried another lower wattage ac adaptor and it works so the problem is clearly the ac adaptor but what I don't understand is that when I do a power reset (unplug the charger, remove the battery and hold the power button for like a minute then wait two minutes and plug everything) the ac adaptor is recognized again but only works after doing that. If I unplug it then plug it again, the "unknown" problem" manifests again. What could be the exact problem here, if it works again temporarily after a power reset" ?

[@hugoigni]

Thanks for the video!

[@75slaine]

Super frustrating the way they do that with the center pin. Have just ordered a replacement after seeing a few vids like this. Pretty sure the sense pin is fragile connection by design.

[@Sawickipedia]

Yep, I feel the same. At first I just thought the cable would be broken somewhere before the connector which would be fair enough, it happens. But after tearing it down literally to the bare metal, and finding a very poor crimp connection in the plug, it looks more like it's designed to fail

[@75slaine]

@@Sawickipedia other videos I came across the break was in exactly the same place. And given the destructive nature of getting at it, it’s designed to also not be repairable. Piss poor really.

[@Sawickipedia]

Interesting, to be honest I hadn't checked if there were other videos on the subject, but yeah I'm not surprised

[@75slaine]

@@Sawickipedia My replacement AC Adapter arrived, and wouldn't you know it, the laptop is charging again. I'm torn between being happy that problem is solved and annoyed that it's that stupid connector and feeling ripped off.

[@Sawickipedia]

I feel ya!

[@rust1269]

Hi I need help when I start the laptop it gives me an error in which it tells me that my charger is under 65wat and if I want to play something it goes into lag if I take out the charger it works fine and I can play I have a new 90wat charger for my laptop and I want to tell you that it doesn't charge, I put the charger in the laptop, it charges for 3 seconds and the battery stops, it doesn't discharge if the charger is plugged in, but it doesn't charge either, please answer me

[@Sawickipedia]

If it's a new charger then have you tried it with the original charger? Also is the new charger a genuine one from the same brand ie dell laptop and dell charger?

[@rust1269]

@@Sawickipedia new charger original dell

[@rust1269]

I have tow charger if I switch charger tow Time laptop will charge

[@yukihatsune9636]

Thanks goodness you are my Savior

[@tawatchaipolwong35]

Good job thanks.

[@freeEagle21]

Hey. My case, i purchased a new battery and still no go. I tried my charger on a different laptop which works fine. But it's not charging the battery and in the bios saying that it's healthy but unknown... very annoying.. I am guessing i need to pull apart to find where the issue is?

[@colin8949]

Was it cheap .. and from China?

[@freeEagle21]

@@colin8949 purchased it from the local shop so as almost everything manufactured from China, I'd say yes it's from China. But I figured it out that it was not only battery but also the charger was the problem. Low voltage charger was the issue. Hope this helps

[@FantoNum]

My adapter is also unknown but when I farted on my adapter.. it started charging

[@Sawickipedia]

Works every time

[@ancientclown]

Very poor cord design that falls apart far too easily where it connects to the laptop and lights up. Designed to fail and make you buy a new one. Alienware 17 R5 my first Dell...my last Dell simply because of that. Far too much garbage in landfills already...quality never a word learned by tech.

[@smokegames1179]

can it be the battery

[@aamirshah6813]

I had same problem and i replaced the cable. It worked fine but after few days it happened again so i decided to check with multimeter if the all 3 wires were making connection to laptop. When i tested all three were good, voltage perfect and ID sense was perfect. but it sometimes work (20%) and 80% its not charing. what can be the issue i have no ther laptop to check charger. but it giving 19.4V to laptop which is perfect. Any Help

[@Sawickipedia]

Maybe the new cable is damaged. Have you tried twisting and bending the cable to see if that causes it to start or stop charging

[@aamirshah6813]

@@Sawickipedia Cable is ok i tested with multimeter. How ever battery is 95% dead but when i plug only charger it still shows the same error

[@Sawickipedia]

Very strange. Only other possibility I can think of is a fault inside the laptop

[@aamirshah6813]

Is there any specific chip or IC related to same. Model is Dell 14 3421. It just worked for 10minutes and now again same problem.

[@hindu_stani]

Whats the centre pin voltage

[@NamVo-rn5ls]

Thank you so much for the great video.

[@Владислав-в8ы6л]

Thank you

[@honeyglazedhams8188]

There's no reason they couldn't have soldered the pin as well, they did that on purpose. Bastards.

[@kathysawicki2730]

Good temporary fix while you wait for 6+ weeks till your replacement cable travels to you from the US via China!

[@kathysawicki2730]

Only 3 weeks! Wow that was quick!

[@Sumtingwongbruh123]

i guess i might have broke that pin or shock the pc. I dont know... :S delicate ish SIghs.... troubleshootings. But thank yous.

[@Sumtingwongbruh123]

I dont get mine, it charges at times but then it doesnt at times. :S being poor stinks...ish The hassels... 50$ for a new brick or charger.

[@Naxxx.110]

Put putty on the damn jack & keep on using xD maybe also 3d print the cover

[@ryancrawford600]

DO NOT short out a capacitor using a screwdriver, if there is enough voltage and the capacitor is polarized it WILL explode. The voltage stored power needs to go some where!!!!. Always use the proper resistor rated at the proper wattage

[@ricardobino7410]

Planned obsolescense at its finnest!

[@arnulfo217]

Hi bro, subtitule Spanish please.