Resolved Battery does not charge andpower jack not working

I am working on a Dell Inspiron. The clients power cable quit working so they went to radio shack and bought a generic wall charger with multiple adapters for laptops. She used this and it worked charging the battery for awhile and then suddenly it quit charging the battery. I have a power cable that I know works and I plugged it into the laptop. It does not charge the battery nor does it supply power to the laptop. My first thought is maybe the power jack came loose from the motherboard. I have taken the laptop apart and the jack is securely attached to the motherboard. So..... my next assumption is the Radio Shack wall charger that they bought has burned up something on the circuit board. Just wanted to see if anyone had any other ides.
Thanks

 

Either power jack (which you've ruled out) or damaged circuit/motherboard. I wouldn't be as presumptuous as to assume what caused the damage though, it could simply be coincidence or other mistreatment (it's my experience that cables rarely fail unless they've been badly handled).

 

I tested the power jack with power plugged in and tester indicated power was getting to the power jack. Just not past that. Maybe there was something wrong with the motherboard before they used the Radio Shack charger and was a fluke that it just happened to charge for a few days. Like you say maybe there was nothing wrong with their power cord.

 

I was thinking more of how the laptop is treated in general, though your theory could be correct as well.

I know of a teenager who needs a new laptop every 6 months or so purly because of the way he treats it (we're talking about keys falling of within a couple of weeks). That young fella's in for a shock when bank of mum and dad deny access though.

Anyway TBH I can't see how we can help you other than contact DELL if still under warranty.

Please mark your thread as 'Resolved'.

 

Dell Power Adapter Failure

Dell have an inbuilt system that monitors the adapter output.
This means that generic power adapters are not accepted & do not work in the laptop-as is the case with your client.
The solution is-buy a genuine Dell-expensive;or buy a generic for Dell from eBay or the like.
The second alternative has worked for me.