the wire inside the charger brick to the laptop has 3 wires.. 1 ground, 2 positives.. if the thinnest wire breaks it wont charge.. but it powers on since thicker positive is intact.. replace charger and it should work. to prevent this in future.. dont wrap cord around brick.(the pressure breaks the thin white wire) instead fold it like a shoelace then use rubber strap to keep against brick.
Looks like dell Phoenix bios mods are now possible. Would a bios mod fix this problem, which affects thousands of Dell users? Inspiron 14z (n411z)--not listed in mods. I'm a novice.
No sense in chasing a software fix for a hardware issue. Dell designs their laptops to be easily repairable. My Studio 1535 had this same problem for the last three years. The first time it happened, I solved it with a new power adapter, but eventually it returned regardless of the adapter used. I was always able to get around it by very firmly plugging in the power adapter and continuing to press firmly until it would start charging. A few weeks ago I purchased a new battery and power adapter, but still the problem persisted. Last week I purchased and installed a new DC power jack, and the problem went away! The jack cost less than $10 on eBay. I should have done it years ago! Here is a video detailing the repair in the Inspiron 1545 (sorry can't post links): youtube.com/watch?v=43G_4dkWkEI Do note that the Inspiron 1545 requires a full daughter board replacement rather than only the dc jack (still around $10 on eBay). Here is a video detailing the repair in the N411z: youtube.com/watch?v=U1yvEoMI55I EDIT: The repair took me about 30 minutes. As a bonus, I found and tightened a number of very loose screws in the process.