I was having difficulty with my Vostro 1500 and I finally found out, thanks to Wicked Mystic, that it was due to my computer not getting enough power to the CPU. I've tested his theory and found that my computer would work to its full capacity when running on battery power, but if I plugged in my power cable, the performance would drop and I would get about 43% out of my CPU (the problem I was having before). I've tested the power cables with my other dell laptop (an ancient (but still functional) Latitude D600) and I haven't had any difficulty getting it to recognize the charger as Dell. My Vostro will always give me an "I don't know what the hell is plugged into me so I won't charge the battery" message. Is there a way around this, possibly a way to make the laptop think its a Dell charger (which it is)? Or do I have to replace the charging port (or possibly the motherboard)?
Well for me its kinda a tough one. did you try another charger with your vostro? i doubt it is the port. can you upload an image of this error?
I've tested the original charger with the laptop and I've tested several other chargers (all of them Dell chargers). I make sure that they match the power requirements for the laptop (19.5v 4.62 amps). It doesn't matter which charger I use, I'll still get this error.
I tried the procedure exactly as the video showed. Unfortunately, it didn't work. :-/ My end goal, though, isn't to get the computer to charge. The issue I want to resolve is the CPU throttling itself because it can't get enough power from the motherboard. If the battery charges, its a plus for me. The reason I was thinking it was the port is because I was looking up solutions to this problem I was having and found that failing ports are an issue with Inspiron 1500's. Vostro's are close relatives to the Inspiron series (the Inpiron 1520 uses the same motherboard that my Vostro uses) so it might be a problem they both share.
Well it could be. I would suggest that you send off an email to the manufacturer. Could be a failing regulator or something.
