Precision 5550, sporadically unable to charge

I have changed batttery. my issue was solved by that.

@ibrarairforce​ no luck on the battery change. when I put the new battery in, it charged fine for an hour or so, but then went back to saying no AC adapter (in bios) 

I'm guessing some sort of charge circuit is damaged, given that it's usb-c ports on both sides that are giving the same results. 

I installed fresh win11, full firmware/bios updates, no luck. 

I also tried backdating the bios about 10 versions, still no consistent charging. 

Same problem here too... I had replaced the battery earlier this year (March?) yet this problem did not occur until recently, so I don't think it's a problem with the battery.

https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/precision-mobile-workstations/precision-5550-only-intermittently-charging/647f9ae3f4ccf8a8deea4175

even when motherboard replacement helped, the success rate was low. One person says they changed *4* times before it started working...

Previously I solved with un-doing some Windows update (https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/precision-mobile-workstations/precision-5550-not-charging-from-wd19-dock-after-kb5037587-update/66821c104a20ad3028469fec) but now I can't fix it.

@ksk206​ chances are the un-doing of windows update just coincided with the charger deciding to work at that moment. I've done clean windows installs, windows 10, no consistent fix but it did sporadically work

my read on this is that the precision 5550 motherboards had a design flaw that makes them very flakey, wrt charging circuit. 

super disappointing on a laptop that cost $2000+

@Chris_S12345​ I think you must be right on both of your points. Just contacted Dell Support (I still had paid for basic support) and they are going to replace the motherboard. Which shows that they know about this flaw. Yes, it is super disappointing. This is their flag ship for high-end users...

Do you also use docking station for charging or do you only use an AC adapter?

@ksk206​ I've got the same results with a WD22tb docks, and a standalone usb-c charger. I've tried a few different wattage chargers, all OEM. no change. 

UPDATE: It's been two weeks since the motherboard replacement, and I have not ran into this problem. Not even once. So yes, the motherboard was most likely the issue.

@Chris_S12345​ I am experiencing same issue as you.

I am experiencing intermittent issues where the laptop stops recognizing the USB-C charger and the battery drains to zero. Moreover, cold restarting sometimes resolves the issue and charging resumes.

More often than not, the laptop does not hold a charge as a result.

I have replaced the battery and still not resolution.

This occurs with Windows 10 and Ubuntu OS, so it is definitely a hardware issue.

I just updated the firmware to ver 1.12.0 today to see if that helps any....

Aside from replacing the motherboard, any other ideas?

I've been having this same issue (intermittent charging, all ports affected) with a precision 5550. At the same time, it was experiencing random instant shutdowns (working fine but then dropping to black immediately and having to restart). Dual booted with Ubuntu 22.04 and Windows 11. Here's what has not solved it:

• BIOS updates
• Dell updates
• Windows updates
• Motherboard replacement (under warranty)
• Battery replacement

The motherboard replacement seems to have fixed the spontaneous instant shutdowns, but not the intermittent charging.

Last possible things to check as far as I know would be the battery cable, which was not replaced amidst all of these replacements (my thought), reinstalling the OSes (IT's suggestion), or another motherboard replacement (no longer in warranty though, so won't bother with that). I have a new computer on order so I'll try the reinstall and maybe a new cable if I can find one.

It also has had some other weird behavior - before the battery replacement, on starting up it would get into a loop where it gets to the Dell logo, then shuts down, starts up again, shuts down, does this a handful of times before finally getting to GRUB. Lately, after the battery replacement, it does the same thing but gets to GRUB first. Dell logo, grub, shut down, dell logo, grub, shut down... a handful of times before it finally boots the OS. It just really doesn't seem like software to me, but we've exhausted most of the hardware options. I used to work in a hardware repair shop for about a year or two but I never remember replacing a battery cable, although we might have. It was much more common to replace LCD panel cables since they run through the hinge.

Very annoying problem.

Just chiming in my own experience. It started mid February this year, laptop would drain the battery overnight, I had to restart it in the morning and it would charge again during the day. Chat with Dell support and they had me send the laptop for battery replacement. Came back with the issue unsolved. Yet another send for mother board replacement (not sure about that: the Work Order specifies parts replaced 4RNWT). Computer came back with the issue still unsolved. Dell had me send it again for repair this time with parts replaced MCFW2. Still not charging under Windows.

The very strange thing is that if I shut down the laptop and plug it on AC, it will fully charge the battery. One it is fully charged, you see the status light go off and then the battery will start discharging. Same thing if you let it stand on the BIOS settings screens, battery will charge. To me it looks like the logic somewhere to detect that an AC adapter is connected is not working correctly. But where does this resides?

To quote ‎kyam2 | DELL Technologies this is very annoying, because other than that, the laptop does a great job. It is too bad some Dell engineers are not monitoring the threads here because they could probably figure out what is wrong with this laptop...