# Dell M1210 Laptop Won't Charge



## chuckwillis (Nov 14, 2008)

my friend's m1210 wont charge anymore.  he didnt drop the laptop or anything.  It just wont charge..out of nowhere.  when he plugs the charger into the laptop...nothing.

the laptop still works fine...he just doesnt turn it on because it will run out of power.  the charger has a solid green light when plugged into a wall plug.

which needs to be fixed: the charger or the battery?  or both? or something else?


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## Egon (Nov 15, 2008)

Mostly likely the charger is screwed up. I've gone through 5 of them in 2 years.


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## chuckwillis (Nov 15, 2008)

Egon said:


> Mostly likely the charger is screwed up. I've gone through 5 of them in 2 years.



he thinks the battery is the problem, but i was always suspicious of the charger.

would a laptop work with a screwed up battery?  if not, then the battery isnt the problem.

quick question:  can i use a charger from ANOTHER dell laptop on the m1210?  if so, would it cause any problems?


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## voyagerfan99 (Nov 15, 2008)

chuckwillis said:


> he thinks the battery is the problem, but i was always suspicious of the charger.
> 
> would a laptop work with a screwed up battery?  if not, then the battery isnt the problem.
> 
> quick question:  can i use a charger from ANOTHER dell laptop on the m1210?  if so, would it cause any problems?



As long as it uses the same power adapter. I imagine it may take a PA-10 or PA-12.


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## chuckwillis (Nov 15, 2008)

so to sum it up...the battery is fine...only the charger needs a replacement.

unless i am missing something, this is correct?


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## voyagerfan99 (Nov 15, 2008)

chuckwillis said:


> so to sum it up...the battery is fine...only the charger needs a replacement.
> 
> unless i am missing something, this is correct?



Yupp.


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## chuckwillis (Nov 15, 2008)

shit i was about to edit my post with another quick question but oh well

does anyone know any reputable sites in the USA that sell laptop chargers?  so far, i have looked at mobilepowersupply.com, laptoppartsworld.com, and shopbattery.net, but cannot find any reviews of the site.


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## voyagerfan99 (Nov 15, 2008)

chuckwillis said:


> shit i was about to edit my post with another quick question but oh well
> 
> does anyone know any reputable sites in the USA that sell laptop chargers?  so far, i have looked at mobilepowersupply.com, laptoppartsworld.com, and shopbattery.net, but cannot find any reviews of the site.



Be safe and spend the extra money to get a genuine Dell power adapter. You don't need a faulty one frying your motherboard.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...id=2999&chassisid=-1&cs=19&l=en&mfgpid=167757


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## chuckwillis (Nov 15, 2008)

hmm ok then thanks for the info

should i get the 2 prong charger or the 3 prong charger?  whats the difference between the two?


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## voyagerfan99 (Nov 15, 2008)

Three prong is better because it has the ground and your less likely to short circuit from the wall.


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## chuckwillis (Dec 17, 2008)

ok heres an update.

i used a schoolmate's dell m1210 charger.  her charger charges her computer just fine, but it won't charge mine.  i even compared our chargers and they were identical (voltage, polarity, everything inside the rectangle box).

when i try to turn on the computer with charger plugged in (mine and schoolmate's), it shows a solid ORANGE light on the battery icon for about 5 seconds, then the light goes out.

since the schoolmate's perfectly-fine charger won't work on my m1210, i have a feeling the motherboard is at fault.  how much is it to replace a laptop motherboard?  or is there a way to fix this problem without replacing the motherboard?


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## somecallmejim (Feb 5, 2009)

chuck,

I know it's been a couple months, so maybe you've figured this out, but I'm going to share this, as I'm seeing that this apparently seems to be a defect on many Dell XPS M1210 laptops.

my m1210 went out in November. I dismantled it, and upon inspecting the motherboard, I found that component P121 on the charging circuit had fried. It literally sparked on the motherboard when a power supply was connected.

The result is that even though BOTH your battery AND power supply are fine (I'll bet if you swapped them with your other friend with a 1210 she wouldn't have any issues), the charge circuit is broken and power dose not get from your charger into your computer.

The bad news is that your motherboard is going to need to be replaced. The good news is that there's a temporary workaround that will allow you to use your laptop, charge your battery, and limp along until you save up the $300+ bucks to buy a new motherboard.

Plug the laptop into a monitor.

Yep, you heard me. Whomever designed the motherboard for this laptop did something interesting. They routed the very same circuit that failed on your motherboard through the monitor connection. The result is that as soon as you plug your laptop into a monitor, it will bypass the failed circuit and spring back to life, allowing you to use and charge your machine. The downside is that because you need a monitor to charge up, you can only use your laptop away from a monitor for a couple hours.

I'm trying to hack together a dongle you can plug into your monitor output to allow you to charge without dragging a monitor with you everywhere you go. I'll post instructions on building it on my site as soon as I figure out which pins do the trick. Really though, it' probably just easier to buy a new motherboard. If you could see the spark I saw, you wouldn't want that happening every time you plugged in the thing.


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