- Nov 6, 2008
- 13
- 0
- 18,560
This has been the most frustrating and unrewarding process I have been involved in for quite some time.
It started out with an old Inspiron 8200 running XP which was exactly the platform that I needed for some automotive diagnostic software. It ran fine from the A/C adapter but would not charge either of what was two fairly new batteries.
I bought a new A/C adapter but nothing changed. I bought a new battery and it would not charge it. The charging light would stay on for a few minutes and then go out. I bought another battery and had the same problem.
I bought a new motherboard and the symptom changed to flashing red/grn charging LED but the result was the same -- the battery would not charge. I bought a new battery charging board and had the same problem. I took both motherboards out and sat them on cardboard boxes and plugged the batteries in directly and had the same problem. I bought another battery and when I plugged it in the BIOS battery status page shows that it came with 52% charge but the charging circuit is idle -- not charging. As with all the aforementioned configurations, the battery charge led flashes constantly 1 green followed by 1 red.
The only thing in common with all these different components was BIOS A11. I read a couple posts where the posters swore that the only way to fix this problem was to go back to BIOS A09 so I got a copy of A09 and flashed it. It made absolutely no difference -- still blinking one red and one green and not charging -- showing "idle". Well actually it did make one difference – it said my CPU was not supported. But it went ahead and booted and ran everything without error.
This is incredible.
The only thing that hasn't been changed is the display but the symptom is the same whether the display is attached or not. Every other component has been replaced -- it isn't even the same laptop anymore -- and the symptom has not changed one iota. I thought Windows XP might have something to do with it but it does the same thing whether the laptop is shut off, in BIOS or in Windows.
Appropriate for Halloween I guess...
Anyone have an idea -- besides just tossing it and all of the duplicate parts I now own, into the garbage can?
Thanks in advance,
Howard
It started out with an old Inspiron 8200 running XP which was exactly the platform that I needed for some automotive diagnostic software. It ran fine from the A/C adapter but would not charge either of what was two fairly new batteries.
I bought a new A/C adapter but nothing changed. I bought a new battery and it would not charge it. The charging light would stay on for a few minutes and then go out. I bought another battery and had the same problem.
I bought a new motherboard and the symptom changed to flashing red/grn charging LED but the result was the same -- the battery would not charge. I bought a new battery charging board and had the same problem. I took both motherboards out and sat them on cardboard boxes and plugged the batteries in directly and had the same problem. I bought another battery and when I plugged it in the BIOS battery status page shows that it came with 52% charge but the charging circuit is idle -- not charging. As with all the aforementioned configurations, the battery charge led flashes constantly 1 green followed by 1 red.
The only thing in common with all these different components was BIOS A11. I read a couple posts where the posters swore that the only way to fix this problem was to go back to BIOS A09 so I got a copy of A09 and flashed it. It made absolutely no difference -- still blinking one red and one green and not charging -- showing "idle". Well actually it did make one difference – it said my CPU was not supported. But it went ahead and booted and ran everything without error.
This is incredible.
The only thing that hasn't been changed is the display but the symptom is the same whether the display is attached or not. Every other component has been replaced -- it isn't even the same laptop anymore -- and the symptom has not changed one iota. I thought Windows XP might have something to do with it but it does the same thing whether the laptop is shut off, in BIOS or in Windows.
Appropriate for Halloween I guess...
Anyone have an idea -- besides just tossing it and all of the duplicate parts I now own, into the garbage can?
Thanks in advance,
Howard
/www.oocities.org/thebithead/I8200FAQ.htm
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