I've had the laptop in question for about 4 years now and it's been nothing but good to me. This week i think i might have breathed it's last breath. When i try to turn it on with the battery in nothing at all happens. When i plug it in the battery light and the power light flash together over and over and over about a half second apart. I'm figuring it's trying to tell me something but i don't know where to go to tell what the flashing lights mean. SO does anyone have a list of error codes coming from the lights or know what this particular one means? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Try a new power brick? I've had this problem crop up several times and usually it's a faulty power brick. Unfortunately the 5100 doesn't have a fuel gauge on the battery so it's impossible to determine if it's full charged or dead. Odds are your brick is toast and the battery is dead.

i acctually did, grabbed one from work and brought it home to see if that was it. unfortunatly it did that same thing. i'm going on dell.com tommorow to get another. it was time for an upgrade anyway, i have nothing but good things to say about that computer. i put it through 4 years of college and spilled ummm beverages etc... they earned my buisness

Mind you if the one you grabbed from work is a 65W power supply it won't work. The 5100 has to have a 90W or better.