Dell Inspiron 1200 help

[maxemo]

I had a friend give me an inspiron 1200 notebook that seemed to have a virus because it took forever to boot. I told him I could do a clean install of XP on it and it should fix it. I turned it on just long enough to put the disc in and restarted. Everything went fine until I started doing the updates. I noticed the battery indicator on the tool bar while I had the charger plugged in. The battery now is just about dead. Can someone tell me if I missed something or did this notebook just die on me? I hooked a meter to the plug and its putting out 19 volts. All help would be appreciated.

 

[Blain]

Maybe the charging plug is broke loose from the MB.
Run Crystal Disk Info to check the HD health. If a HD is going bad, it will take longer to boot up.

 

[DominionSeraph]

19v is apparently right for the AC adapter. Take out the battery and try starting it up plugged in.

 

[maxemo]

When the battery is out, it will not power up. I went to bios and looked at the battery section. Even with the plug in, it doesn't recognize it.

 

[Blain]

Maybe it's time to hit ebay for a battery.
You can get 8 cell batteries for the Inspiron from rock solid sellers for $34 shipped.

BTW, All the Inspiron batteries I see listed state that they are 14.8v, but the OEM chargers are rated at 19v

Evidently there are fake Dell chargers out there... Amazon photos

 

[maxemo]

If the electrical plug in and the battery out, it should power up. I have another Dell that I leave the battery off to preserve it and just leave it connected to wall outlet. I am thinking the motherboard is faulty but just wanted to confirm with someone else.

 

[Blain]

If the power jack is broken from the MB, you can repair it.