So along with 40 laptops we use as a mobile instructional lab, we got
four external battery chargers for the batteries used in those laptops.
I have been using one of them for a few months now. This morning I
dropped four batteries into it. Coming back a few hours later
expecting the green lights to be blinking (meaning the batteries
were charged), I was surprised to see three of the four lights red.
Now I had understood that that indicated the batteries were bad in some
way but didn't quite know what it actually meant.
A little bit of trial and error found that any batteries put into those
slots were now deemed bad even if they had previously charged fine.
At this point I go to the Dell website looking for the manual for the
charger. Searching for battery charger didn't come up with much. Finding
a part number (0F0075), a service tag, and an express service code, I go
back to the support site and try to look up the device by those.
Support.dell.com tells me that the Express Service code and the service
tag are not valid. A general search of the site brings up a page with an
interesting tidbit.
Q: Does Dell sell external battery chargers?
A: Dell does not currently offer external battery chargers.
from Dell
Notebook Battery Center FAQ
Wow, this must be a pretty serious hallucination I am having.
Searching the internet brings up nothing but replacement batteries. So I
call up Dell.
A brief tangent on phone mazes: I have dealt with two phone mazes
today, one at American Airlines and the
other at Dell. Both systems allowed
(and basically required) voice response to the automated questions. The
one at Dell could barely handle exact responses as requested. The one at
American Airlines on the otherhand could handle all sorts of extraneous
noise and responses. For example it could figure out that "yep", "yes",
and "correct" were the same thing. The one at Dell could only handle a
nice short enunciated "yes".
While upgrading their software, Dell
should invest in a decent audio to hold music adapter. The hold music was
pleasant generic light classicalesque, but it faded in and out and was
usually crackly. It would also be good if they normalized the volume of
the music to the lady that continualy informs me that "All of our
representatives are assisting other callers. Please remain on the line and
a representative will be with you as quickly as possible." was a similar
volume to the music.
After asking and confirming my express service code, the phone maze
directs me to Dell Plasma TV support. I quickly get bounced to another
phone queue followed by another, and another. Before I actually speak
with someone that can help, I have spent over 2 hours on the phone and
have spoken with at least 4 people.
During this enjoyable time on hold (cordless phones with speaker phones
are required for dealing with tech support) I discovered another
interesting issue with the battery charger; apparently it needs to be
powercycled. After it was unplugged for a minute all of the charging
slots once again seemed to work and all of the batteries were once again
deemed good
Sure enough, once I finally did get ahold of the manual(pdf),
the troubleshooting section on page 12 suggests powercycling as a solution
to the red light indicators.
