Windows 10: When I plug in charger, laptop doesn't "show" charging. With battery out and plugged-in...

I've tried reinstalling the battery driver thrice.

Figured if the port was busted, laptop shouldn't power on with power cable alone. If you're tech minded, please share your thoughts with me.

Thanks man.

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:)

 

Battery plugged in but not charging.

All laptops will say connected but not charging when the battery reaches 100%. There is no trickle charge to keep the battery topped up, it would damage a Li-Ion battery to do so.

It is normal behaviour on a Dell for the battery light to go out when the battery is fully charged. Some other brands I own keep the light on at all times a charger is connected, but change the colour to indicate the state of charge. Usually it's amber to indicate charging, changing to green or white when fully charged. The charging light turning off is Dell's way to tell you it's fully charged. Unfortunately this is indistinguishable from the case of no charger being connected, or an unrecognised charger being used.


Interestingly, while I was waiting for the genuine article to be delivered I found that a spare universal charger I had (the sort suppled with a selection of adapter tips for the lead) would sometimes be accepted by the Dell. I'd plug it in a few times until the battery light lit up then leave it to charge normally. I'd see the same effect in the F2 bios screen, about one time in four when plugging it in the bios would show a '90W adapter' instead of 'unrecognised'. So it looks like the center pin may not be the only way a Dell decides if a charger is acceptable. This may explain why your charger sometimes works. My universal charger certainly had no 'third wire' on the lead's own plug. The Dell adapter's third pin had nothing it could be connected to, but still it would charge sometimes.

I still suspect there's a fault or a broken third wire in your Dell charger.

 

Battery plugged in but not charging.

A further update on "Plugged in not charging" (PI,NC). A few days ago I deliberately discharged the laptop battery and on plugging the charger back in the battery was not charging. This time, because I had read the suggestion somewhere, I just disabled the Microsoft AC Adapter and the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery in Device Manager. I then enabled them and found the battery was now charging.
Today, as a further test, I again let the battery discharge, down to 6%. When I switch the charger back on I found the battery icon displaying the "PI,NC" message when I hovered the cursor over it. I went into Device manager and disabled both the Adapter and the ACPI. Immediately a message appeared on the screen to the effect that hardware changes had been detected and the laptop would restart, which it did. The battery icon had disappeared, as expected, but the battery charging light was on. I went into Device Manager and both Adapter and ACPI were still both showing Disabled-Code 22. The battery charging light was still on however. I enabled both Adapter and ACPI and the battery icon re-appeared, again as expected. The battery was now showing 11% charge, so I conclude, though I do not understand how, that the battery was still charging in spite of having both Adapter and ACPI disabled. As I write I have now disabled the Adapter only in Device Manager but the battery is still charging. I have now enabled the Adapter and disabled the ACPI. As the battery icon has gone off screen I will wait a few minutes before I enable it and check the degree of battery charge. The battery charging light is still on I should add.
Having now enabled the ACPI I have found the amount of charge on the battery has increased quite a bit.
It seems to me that, as far as my second hand Dell E5420 Latitude laptop is concerned, it is necessary to disable the Adapter and/or ACPI in Device Manager to kick the battery charging process into action. I really would like to know why this is and, more importantly, what purpose the Adapter and ACPI in Device Manager serve other than to display the battery icon and start the charging process when disabled.

 

Plugged in, not charging


There are 3 points of failure for a laptop that does not charge (And has been determined to be a hardware problem and NOT a software/OS problem). OS problems can be tested as mentioned above.

• Dying battery (end of recharge cycle limit) as DustSailor and bro67 have mentioned.
• Defective/dead charger/power supply
• Broken DC In port (very common)

Sometimes in the case of a broken DC In port you can wiggle the power jack in the port and see it starts to charge and then goes back to "Plugged In Not Charging" when you let go. But not always.

Sometimes with the Charger/Power Supply it is only the jack that is defective.

First order of business is to borrow a Charger/Power Supply (be sure it has the same voltage IN as yours) and test it to see if it will charge the battery.

The rest is replacing parts until you get to the offending one.
The Charger/Power Supply is cheapest to replace first.
Then the Battery
Then to the shop to see if the DC In port can/should be replaced.