Laptop not recharging

[#1]

Hi all,
My niece has a Dell 15R (N5010) laptop. the problem is after 3 years it does not charge anymore. I took the easy way out and got another battery, but that went to 1% (power lead has to be in at all times) and stayed there. It still works at 1%  but it will not charge the battery. I have googled and it seems it is a common problem with Dell. The lower 6 exams have just finished and my Niece is due for the 6 weeks holidays, so I will tackle it when the holidays start. I seem to have 3 choices according to different websites.
1. Remove CMOS battery and that might get it charging again
2. Reset the BIOS
3. Send it back to Dell.
Have any of you had this problem and will 1. or 2. work, or is there another fix.
Thanks for reading.

[#2]

I've heard that problem can be something to do with a broken pin in the power socket of the laptop.

[#3]

Option 1 - worth a try - nothing to lose.
Option 2 - doubtful this would work if option 1 doesn't but again - nothing to lose
Option 3 - probably not worth it on an economics basis.
My 5 year old Dell 1510 graphics card packed up a couple of months ago - although I'm still using it, it's running hot and the graphics are in compatibility mode. I bought a high end Dell 17R to replace it just over a month ago. It lasted 30 minutes before the motherboard packed in (literally). One replacement board next day and some broken clips on the laptop and I carried on using it. The wireless had played up from the moment I powered the unit on and carried on playing up - I had lengthy discussions with Dell about it, requested an alternative card (which they refused and sent an identical replacement) and eventually last week I told them to come and pick it up and refund me.
Just as the courier had gone with my Dell, the next door neighbour came round with their sons which they bought a couple of years ago - it had just totally died. Googling around showed this as a common Dell fault as well.
I bought a "cheap" laptop from the Argos outlet on Ebay to tide me over - it is a Toshiba C850 with a 1000M processor (should have been a B830 or something) - it cost me £170 plus another £17 for a 4Gb upgrade from Amazon and it's a fantastic little laptop.
Backup your daughters data, mess with the Bios and if it doesn't sort the issue, Ebay it and buy a replacement or use it as a desktop (plugged in all the time) machine.

[#4]

Quote from: ejs

I've heard that problem can be something to do with a broken pin in the power socket of the laptop.

You mean the one that identifies which power supply is connected to the laptop ? Could also be worth a look although the Dells tend to complain when they don't get the PSU identification

[#5]

Quote from: ejs

I've heard that problem can be something to do with a broken pin in the power socket of the laptop.

Hopefully removing the CMOS battery will jump start the laptop intp recognising the charging pin again, if not then the broken pin will probably be the cause. I have just been informed one of my Nieces friends tripped over the charging lead and ripped it out of the laptop. 
Just have to find a site where it shows me where the battery is, I have no idea about laptops, give me a desktop any day of the week 
I will let my sister know about the headaches with Dell picbits, hopefully the removal of the battery will work, otherwise my niece will have a non portable laptop.

[#6]

If your niece has a friend with a Dell laptop, get her to check the ratings on the power supply and give it a go - my supply fits my wifes newer Dell and they both recognise the power supplies from each other - you can see the middle pin on the picture below. It's inset quite deeply but get her to make sure it is in there.

[#7]

Cheers Dom,
I have just tried an older charger in the 15R which didn't work, and I have tried the 15R charger in another Laptop and it did work, so it looks like the laptop is a fault, either not recognising the charging pin, or as ejs said, it is broke inside the laptop.

[#8]

Be your own expert on Dell 15R (N5010)    google and YouTube are your friend....
http://www.youtube.com/results?q=dell+15r+%28n5010%29&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&bvm=bv.48705608,d.d2k&biw=13...
Not checked them out..... but... probably something in there that refers to the power plug... at worst, you will see how to "undo" the casing and see for yourself.... could be the PCB is broke or the power socket has come adrift from the PCB... you would see that easy enough, after dismantling,......
Enjoy. ! 

[#9]

`ere ya go!... just the job...

[#10]

Thanks shutter, very much appreciated, hopefully I can stop at the 2:45 mark to remove the CMOS battery,  
I remember taking my dads old laptop apart about 13 years ago and it didn't end well, I just couldn't figure out where all the spare screws came from    I thought that only happened in movies  

[#11]

I nearly always end up with a couple of "extra" screws when putting things back together..... but they still worked ok !...
Most of my early cars were much lighter after I did a decoke on the engine, or other maintainance where lots of nuts bolts and washers were involved.... they seemed to go faster too ! ! ! ...

[#12]

Quote from: shutter

Most of my early cars were much lighter after I did a decoke on the engine, or other maintainance where lots of nuts bolts and washers were involved.... they seemed to go faster too ! ! ! ...

[#13]

Here is an update, I finally got my hands on my Niece's laptop, a bit too late though. She still needs it for upper 6th form so I was waiting for her to finish school before I looked at it. Well the laptop has finally gone down. It starts and gets to the windows desktop with the mouse pointer working, but no taskbar or icons, just a blank desktop. Safe mode just gives a continual boot, as does start with DOS command. I ran the troubleshooting and got a 0142 error status 79, HDD fail. I have taken the laptop apart (thanks for the link shutter) and removed the HDD and put it in my old computer. The HDD is recognised in my old computer as E drive, "recovery", and  F drive with nothing. When clicking the F drive it says the usual, this drive needs formatting. The recovery partition says it has 7 gig free of a 14 gig partition, but looking inside it is using 1 Kb.
I have tried a  recovery program Getdataback, but after saying A drive is not found it just says not responding, so if anyone has got any info on a good program for trying to recover Data off a corrupted HDD it would be much appreciated.
To make it worse, my Niece who has backed up a fair bit in the last few months plugged her ext HDD into my sisters computer to check how much was in her Downloads file, and unfortunately she didn't copy the files from her Download folder to her ext HDD, she just dragged and made a shortcut, so now the shortcut relates to the Downloads file on my sisters computer.
While the laptop is in pieces, I have removed the CMOS battery, and tried to realign the charging pins, so when it is put back together, I am hoping the charging part works.

[#14]

Download, and burn a  LINUX MINT 15 .iso file.... this will give you a "LIVE" DVD version.... put that in your laptop... boot up to the cd/dvd drive, and let it run... you can then "try out" the Linux Mint 15... it is NOT installed on your laptop... but runs from the DVD..
Plug in your "duff" hdd. and see if it shows the contents of the "duff" hdd....
Sometimes Windows will not show the content and tell you it needs formatting...but the Linux does show the content...  you can then access your laptop C drive and copy the files/folders across from the "duff" hdd... to your laptop...
Hopefully.... 

[#15]

That's great shutter, the HDD is on my old computer that I gave my Nephew so I will do as you suggested tomorrow when I go over to my Sisters and fingers crossed give you the good news.