To learn a little bit more about the DELL D5xx and D6xx battery range, here you find a few bits and pieces about it's internals. It's a first attempt with still many question unanswered. Anyone who likes to comment or make a suggestion, drop a note at the contact section.

The DELL PA-10 AC power adapter has a power plug with 3 connections; +19,5 volts (V+), ground (V-) and power adapter identification. With already 1 AC power adapter with a dead MAXIM DS2501 power adapter ID chip, it might be worth to have a detailed look at the mechanics of the DC power plug.

The DELL PA-10 AC power adapter examined in this case is known as a PA-1900-02D with revision number A04 and part number 9T215. After having a bit of look at several "identical" PA-10 power adapters, the "family" had several revisions already. To name a few other variations "PA-1900-01D3" - P/N: U7809 (REV A0.4) and  "PA-1900-02D2" P/N: DF266 (REV A0.3).

From start the DELL C3284 DVD+RW Drive failed to burn DVD's of lasting quality. In several cases the burned DVD's ended up read failures in other drives, as well as the DELL C3283 DVD+RW drive itself.

Although DVD's are shaky backup material, for non-critical use it's a cheap way to copy software, pictures, music and sorts. In time the frequency of DVD disc failure increased. Enough to investigate this issue a bit deeper.

The DELL C3284 DVD+RW drive is in fact a TSST TS-L532B. The manufacturer is known as the Toshiba Samsung Storage Technology Corporation, an international joint venture company of Toshiba Corporation and Samsung.

DELL flash code at startup

After changing SDRAM memory to solve the BSOD problem, the DELL Latitude D610 powers on with a caps lock light flashing like this - the screen is black, nothing happens;
 

The WiFi connection of the DELL D610 Latitude sporadically disconnects itself. When the D610 is operating in battery mode, occasionally the WiFi indicator next to the Power button goes off.

Just 2 days after the cable repair of the DELL AC Power Adapter for a DELL Latitude D610, the same problem appears again. During startup the BIOS reports "The AC power adapter type cannot be determined". Murphy's law at it's best!

2009 has started well, but not for the screen of the D610. After coming back from Windows standby the screen was black, although the harddisk made all the familiar noise of startup. At first it seemed key code Fn+F8 (CRT/LCD) was pressed - this redirects graphics output to the external monitor VGA connector. But that wasn't the case.
 

Your system will operate slower

After many flying hours with the DELL Latitude D610, suddenly the DELL AC Power adapter stops charging the laptop battery. At startup the laptop beeps and reports the following BIOS message

"Power Adapter not recognized".

"The AC power adapter type cannot be determined. Your system will operate slower and the battery will not charge. Please connect a Dell 90W AC adapter or higher for best system operation."

GREAT!!! The 120 Gb - 2,5" inch Samsung hard disk - HM121HC - has crashed big time. With it's production date of October 2007 it lasted for about 8 months in the Dell Latitude D610. Somewhere in the boot / partition records the disk surface has gone sour.

Blue Screen of Death - BSOD

Since 1 week the Dell D610 Latitude is plagued by sporadic blue screens (BSOD) with various STOP messages, sudden reboots or a frozen screen. The frequency is a few times per week or sometimes 2-3 times per day. It seems there is no relation at all with the activity performed on the D610 laptop. Also this has never been seen before on this laptop. Nothing was changed when the problem started to occur.