Try your adapter in another computer (dell that uses the same cord). Also, wiggle the cable around and see if you can establish contact. A good way to do this is hold the box portion of the adapter to your ear, you should hear a buzz that gets louder when the connection is established. If you have a loose cable or bad power jack you'll here the transformer inside pop on and off as you jiggle. If you have vision or have some eyeballs available they can see the charging / AC light turn on / off as you move the connector. Hope that helps. ----- Original Message ----- From: ridge007 To: accesscomp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Sent: Thursday, January 07, 2010 9:44 AM Subject: [accesscomp] need help troubleshooting laptop battery Hi all, I have a dell laptop that is malfunctioning. the latitude begin to shut off unexpectedly recently. first thing I noticed was that the battery life had shortened. In my attempt to troubleshoot I removed the battery to run the computer off of the ac power with the battery disconnected. I reasoned that if the system booted and operated properly I had a battery problem. The system didn't work with the battery removed. Therefore, I conclude I need an ac adapter. Is my deduction correct, or, am I missing something? Before I spend $60-$100 for the replacement adapter I thought I would get a second opinion, smile! I am not sure if a dead battery can be charged? On the other hand, I'm not sure that the puter will operate without the battery attached? Thanks, Rob