'no Battery Is Detected' ??

[Smowball]

Laptop went flat. Ive plugged the power lead in, but on my tool bar where the batter icon is, instead of it showing as charging there is a big red cross now over the icon and when I hover the mouse over it it says 'No battery is detected'. Does this mean my battery is dead? and I dont mean flat.

[magsmay]

you could try taking the battery out leaving it a few minutes then putting it back in -this is the sum total of my technological know-how but surprising how often it works ;-)

[society]

How old is the computer? Is this the original battery?

[Smowball]

Lol, bit like the old tried and tested ' ctrl,alt,delete' for all problems.
Yes will give that a try - this laptops had 3 batteries during its life already, though have to confess I dont know how long they are meant to last.

[Smowball]

society - Dell laptop, about 4 years old, on 3rd battery already.

[ladybirder]

Smow do you let your battery run down all the time when you are using your laptop?

[society]

Third battery in four years, that's much. Something is not right, not sure but hopefully someone will come along soon to help.

[Smowball]

No, I have the power lead plugged in 90% of the time, but I thought I had left in charging this morning when infact the plug socket was turned off.
Strangely even though it is plugged in and has this message, it hasnt gone flat again yet.

[ladybirder]

90% of the time plugged in is where you are going wrong smow. You should let it run down and then recharge. It usually tells you this in the instructions. I've had mine 3 years, same battery.

[Smowball]

Well ive only had it plugged in 90% with this current battery as I used to let it go flat like you say with the previous two and they died a death also, so thought i would try a different way.

[ladybirder]

I don't know whether this is important or not, but I don't let it go totally flat, just nearly flat if you know what I mean. Maybe it's the laptop itself then Smow.

[Smowball]

Think you could be right. Just pulled out the lead and laptop went completely dead. Blooming thing! lol

[ladybirder]

Ask some 10 year old, they'll probably know what's wrong:-)