So here we go again with the second stage of power problems on my aging but faithful inspiron 1200.
I just got a new battery in today. A fresh 63Whr Li-Ion which nets me a topped out runtime of about 4:30 apparently. This in comparison to the dead Nimh which, when it was new, got me probably 3 hours if I was lucky. And now it's at pretty much full wear as I get no more than a few minutes out of it anymore.
The new battery has been running fine since I popped it in and I managed to get it charged from it's stored state of about 37% to 100% in an hour or so and all has been running idle power-wise since then.
About a half hour ago something happened which I'm still trying to investigate and I'm hoping the regulars here have a clue.
Essentially, the whole laptop shut off immediately out of nowhere. No warning, no shutdown. Just BAM. Meanwhile, a strong smell of melted plastic comes about from the vicinity of the adapter socket. I quickly pull the AC adapter and let it sit while I freak for a few moments. Try to turn it on with just the battery. No luck. A few minutes later I randomly decided to put the old battery in. It boots! Being adventurous, I plug the ac adapter back in. Still boots, registered as charging, no issues, no smells. Get into windows and manage to continue about my business no problem. I get adventurous again. Pull the old Nimh battery out and put the li-ion back in. It sees it just fine and seems to have no problems. Reads the full charge and all. But once I pull the ac adapter manually, it goes out again. Same abrupt shut-off. Try to turn it on again, no go. Pull out the battery, put the dead nimh in. Boots, but complains about being low. Plug the ac adapter in and still nothing. shut off, put the li-ion back in with no ac power. Boots just fine and that's where I sit now.
I post this with about 3 and a half hours remaining with an 85% charge in hopes to get any kind of possibly good news or advice before I call it quits when the battery drops to about 35% and go into teardown mode to examine the charging circuitry on the motherboard for any possibly blown components.
Thanks for any help btw.
I just got a new battery in today. A fresh 63Whr Li-Ion which nets me a topped out runtime of about 4:30 apparently. This in comparison to the dead Nimh which, when it was new, got me probably 3 hours if I was lucky. And now it's at pretty much full wear as I get no more than a few minutes out of it anymore.
The new battery has been running fine since I popped it in and I managed to get it charged from it's stored state of about 37% to 100% in an hour or so and all has been running idle power-wise since then.
About a half hour ago something happened which I'm still trying to investigate and I'm hoping the regulars here have a clue.
Essentially, the whole laptop shut off immediately out of nowhere. No warning, no shutdown. Just BAM. Meanwhile, a strong smell of melted plastic comes about from the vicinity of the adapter socket. I quickly pull the AC adapter and let it sit while I freak for a few moments. Try to turn it on with just the battery. No luck. A few minutes later I randomly decided to put the old battery in. It boots! Being adventurous, I plug the ac adapter back in. Still boots, registered as charging, no issues, no smells. Get into windows and manage to continue about my business no problem. I get adventurous again. Pull the old Nimh battery out and put the li-ion back in. It sees it just fine and seems to have no problems. Reads the full charge and all. But once I pull the ac adapter manually, it goes out again. Same abrupt shut-off. Try to turn it on again, no go. Pull out the battery, put the dead nimh in. Boots, but complains about being low. Plug the ac adapter in and still nothing. shut off, put the li-ion back in with no ac power. Boots just fine and that's where I sit now.
I post this with about 3 and a half hours remaining with an 85% charge in hopes to get any kind of possibly good news or advice before I call it quits when the battery drops to about 35% and go into teardown mode to examine the charging circuitry on the motherboard for any possibly blown components.
Thanks for any help btw.
