I apologize if this is a little long winded, but I feel it's necessary to start from the beginning:
I have a Dell Inspiron 6400, which is about 2 years old now, and my warranty has already expired. A couple of months back, for no apparent reason, my battery just stopped charging, and I received a message upon booting, saying that the power adapter type cannot be determined, and that therefore my computer may run more slowly, and the battery might not charge. After using up the rest of the battery life, my computer essentially became a portable desktop computer. It would not start up if it wasn't plugged in, and if I disconnected the power adapter while it was on, the computer would shut off.
I let the problem go unsolved for a while, but just last week my brother got his own laptop, and the wattage on his adapter is the same as mine, so I tried connecting his adapter to my laptop. When I do this, the battery appears to be charging for a second (as in the battery light on my laptop is solid green), but then begins and repeats this cycle: the battery light turns solid green for about a half second, then blinks orange for another half second. This cycle repeats unendingly. The power options in my Control Panel say that the battery is at 0%, but charging. However, it's clear that the battery life isn't increasing.
The Dell Support web page told me to try reseating the battery (this is before I tried the new cable), and this did nothing. Also, my owner's manual says that the blinking pattern on the light indicates that the battery is too hot to charge, and to let it cool down and try again. This was also unsuccessful.
If I don't get anywhere with answers from here, I'll just call Dell Tech Support, but I figured I should get opinions from other people first. Thanks for bearing with my story. :)
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