Sunday, January 25, 2009

I need help/Dell and I are not getting along

I think my week-long sick time on the couch completely killed the laptop (Dell Inspiron E1505). It worked just fine until Friday when I think it joined me in sickness. I'd been watching a bunch of shows from abc and nbc online to keep me occupied, using the laptop as my "tv." It was plugged into the wall the entire time so I know it shouldn't have been draining the juice more than usual.

Anyway, all of a sudden, the laptop will shut down all open programs and log you out of the current username. It it won't shut the computer entirely down, it just logs you out. Then, when you log back in, a sweet little message pops up that reads "Your battery is still able to charge properly, however, it is nearing the end of it's usable life." Then it gives you a link to where you can buy $180 Dell replacement batteries--thanks but no thanks (it's only a year and a half old!)

To make matters worse, if you leave the laptop or close the cover, when you return, it won't "wake up." You have to completely shut down the computer and restart it again to turn it on.

The part I couldn't understand is why is continued to log me out/shut down while it was still plugged into the wall. Who cares if the battery is dying...shouldn't it still work fine if it has the wall/adaptor as a power source??! I did a little experiment and removed the battery so the sole source of energy would be through the adaptor. Lo and behold, the computer still randomly shuts down programs and logs you out (but it does not give the battery message upon logging back in) and it also requires complete shutdown to get it going again after leaving it for 15 minutes.

CAN ANYONE HELP ME!!??? I am so inept when it comes to computers and doing want to go spending $200 on something that won't fix the problem. Thanks!

1 comment:

  1. Ummmmm.....sounds like a fun problem - NOT!

    I don't have anything helpful to say...so I guess I'll just end this comment now. ;P

    ReplyDelete