Dell laptop not charging? Here’s how to fix it

Your laptop charger is one of the crucial components that make any laptop functional. Even though it has enough power stored in its battery, high-intensity processing is severely limited on battery power alone without a working charger.

Usually when your laptop stops charging, it’s due to one of three things. First, the failure is due to a damaged battery. Second, some problems with the charging cable. And finally, some driver issues.

This article explains in more detail some common causes of your Dell laptop not charging, along with a guide to determining the main problems and fixing them. So, without further ado, let’s get down to business.

Is my Dell laptop charging?

An easy way to determine if a Dell laptop is charging is to check the LED light. Most Dell laptops come with a charger with an LED light. This LED light is located on the adapter or charging connector. It lights up every time you connect the charging port to a power source.

Another indication is found in the tray icon. The battery logo in the tray menu should have a 2 pin plug icon. If you only see the battery icon (no 2 pins), or if the LED does not light up, your battery is most likely not charging.

Why is my Dell laptop not charging?

How to fix a Dell laptop that won’t charge?

Before moving on to the solutions, you need to know where the problem lies. Later in the article, we mention specific ways to determine if the problem is with the battery, charger, or controller. And once you determine the problem, we’ll provide you with recommended solutions to fix it.

discharge condenser

Your laptop’s capacitors get charged. Sometimes a fully charged capacitor located on your laptop motherboard can be the reason behind a system not charging. To fix this, you need to discharge the capacitor. However, to do this, you must first remove the battery.

Removing the battery is fairly simple for older laptops as the batteries are easily accessible without removing the backplate. However, if you have a battery inside the laptop case, you must first remove the battery from the laptop.

Once you have successfully removed the battery, follow the steps mentioned below to discharge the capacitors.

1. Remove any power supply coming into your Dell laptop.
2. Press and long press the power button to 30 to 60 seconds to discharge the capacitors.
3. Once done, reconnect the battery and re-insert the back panel.
4. Turn on the computer. If the PC turns on, the battery is fine.
5. Now plug the charger back into the laptop and see if the laptop charges. You may need to replace the charging cable if it won’t charge.

Check laptop battery

Once you have discharged the capacitor and the laptop still won’t charge, you can try to detect if the problem is the charger or the battery. To check this, you need to turn on the laptop without a battery.

1. First, remove the power cable if it is connected to the laptop.
2. remove the battery of the laptop.
   
3. discharge the capacitor pressing the power button for one minute.
4. Now, connect the charger to your laptop without inserting the battery.

If the laptop turns on, the problem is most likely related to the laptop battery. Replacing the battery with a new one should fix the charging issue.

Check battery status from BIOS

Another method that you can use to check if the problem is related to the hardware or its driver is through the BIOS. BIOS, or Basic Input Output System, has access to all the details about the hardware connected to the motherboard. And on Dell laptops, you can also check the battery status using the BIOS.

1. Press the F2 key repeatedly during startup to enter the bios on most Dell laptops. If F2 doesn’t work, the BIOS key could be any of the Function or Delete keys.
2. Once in BIOS, go to Settings > General > Battery information.
   

Now in the right pane you can see the battery and charger details. The health status should indicate Excellent/OK, and the AC adapter should provide the power currently supplied to the notebook. If the BIOS shows any battery status errors, the problem is with the battery.

Note: BIOS for all Dell laptops are not similar. Depending on the laptop model, the BIOS might be different. Therefore, you may need to navigate through the BIOS to find battery information.

Update battery driver

The battery controller manages the power supply to the system. In addition to this, the driver is also responsible for displaying the battery indication icon located in the tray menu. Any problem with it may indicate a problem with the battery controller.

To fix this, try updating the driver.

1. Press Windows Key + X and select Device administrator.
2. Expand Batteries. You should see two entries, Microsoft AC adapterY Microsoft ACPI Compliant Control Method Battery.
3. Right-click Microsoft AC Adapter and click update driver.
   
4. Once the update process is complete, update the second item in the list as well.

Run the Dell Diagnostic Utility

The BIOS on most Dell laptops provides the user with diagnostic options. The diagnostic tool runs a series of tests to determine any problems with the hardware components connected to the laptop.

1. Press the F12 key repeatedly during startup to enter the single boot menu.
2. here under Other optionsSelect Diagnosis. The diagnostic process will now begin.
3. To diagnose a specific component, press the Esc key and click the right arrow icon at the bottom right of the screen.
4. Click on the play icon. The laptop will now run a series of tests to determine problems with the laptop component. The laptop will make certain sounds if the diagnostic tool finds any problems.
5. Once the process is complete, you can see the results in the results tab.
   

Run the Battery Troubleshooter

The battery or power troubleshooter scans your laptop for settings that may be causing high power consumption. These settings include settings within the power and sleep settings. This can also fix issues that are preventing the laptop from charging.

1. Press Windows key + I to open Settings.
2. To go System > Fireman > another problem solver.
3. Now run the Power Troubleshooter.
4. Wait for the process to complete. Once the process is complete, the troubleshooter window will provide you with a report.

Clean the charging port

If you have taken a look at the ports on your laptop, you may have noticed that they are full of dust, especially if you have been using them for a long time. These dust particles can obstruct the flow of electricity from the charging cable to the charging port.

Try cleaning your laptop’s charging port and charging cable with compressed air. Don’t push any more dust inside the laptop when using a can of compressed air. To make sure this doesn’t happen, you can first use a pair of plastic tweezers to remove any excess dust particles.

Once the dense dust particles are removed, use a small blast of air at an angle to blow the dust out of the port.

Use wall outlet

A simple but common mistake users make is plugging the charger into a multi-plug adapter that doesn’t work. This may seem like a silly mistake, but situations like this are bound to happen.

So if your laptop is not charging, try to check first if the charger is getting power.