I have an Inspiron 17 3721 running Windows 8.1. After about a year of use and shortly after the warranty expired the battery would frequently not charge despite the AC adapter being plugged in. Eventually it stopped charging altogether. I researched online but none of the tricks I read about worked. I used some battery analysis software and saw that the battery was pretty worn (I tend to use the laptop with the AC adapter plugged in most of the time). So I bought a new battery. The situation remains unchanged, the icon still says 'plugged in not charging'.
Having installed the new battery and found the problem remained I then discovered that I can right click the battery taskbar icon and open 'Dell Extended Battery Life Options'. In fact when I open this tool I can see that it clearly says 'Battery Charging Disabled' on the status tab. Infuriatingly though there is no option to actually enable battery charging.
I have gone through every tab and disabled all of the Dell features there that are designed to extend my battery life but to no avail.
Can someone please for gods sake show me how I can get my battery to charge?
Thanks a million,
Alex