Dell laptop error - any ideas?

[stoofa]

I bought my wife a Studio 1535 just over a year ago.
It's been working just fine until about two weeks ago.
She switched it on and at Post she got the following message:

WARNING: The AC adapter type is less than 90W
This will prevent optimal system performance.
Please check AC adapter connect properly, remove AC adapter and plug-in it again, thanks.

This was totally out of the blue - everything had been working fine.
She did as said, removed and re-plugged, still the same error.
Now the laptop would power from the PSU but not charge the battery - the only way to charge the battery was to have the laptop switched off and plugged in.

I purchased a new PSU - an official one from Dell (yes, paid the premium for a Dell replacement).
Tried to use that yesterday and we're getting exactly the same message and the same symptoms.

Anyone got any ideas?
It's looking like a fault with the laptop itself - is this going to be an expensive thing to get sorted out?

Ta

 

[beermonster]

sounds like the dc board, very common on dells unfortunately.

 

[Bubba]

Will be a bad connection some where for the centre pin of the charger, either on the dc jack or a track or component on the motherboard could be gone, also these jacks are on a cable so could just be a cable has came off at the back..

Also you didn't have to go to dell for an original PSU, I sell them for £20, genuine Dell.

 

[stoofa]

I guess I'll have to speak to a repair centre as it's outside of it's 1yr warranty.
Hopefuly this won't be too expensive - otherwise it's new laptop time I guess.

 

[linktoinsanity]

If you have an older low powered psu you could try using that one time and then switch back to the higher powered one. It may "reboot" the sensor in there that thinks the PSU isn't powerful enough.