I ran into something this weekend when working on a friends laptop that resulted from her removing an external hard drive with out properly using the safely remove icon, she told me she only did it 2 or 3 times normally she did use the icon. And once I looked up the error on google I found many many others that had the same thing happen to them and all of them also had an external hard drive they would attach, from all the info and reading I did that was the cause. What happens is you start to get an invalid drive error message, the one she was getting was invalid drive G:\, any time I tried to go to add remove programs I got that error so could not remove out dated programs, any time I tried to install things it gave that same error, so there was no way to try to update or clean out anything. Could not install or remove due to that error. After researching I found a way to go to the command prompt and type in a substitute code and that would let me remove or install programs however upon reboot it was right back, meaning anytime she needs to add or remove she will need to do that command prompt code first, and when I looked in My Computer it showed a G: drive it was an exact copy of the C: drive it was a ghost said it had the exact same volume etc. I tried every thing I found online to try to get it to go away including some registry edits but on hers the registry items were not changed so I could not edit it. So if you do use an external hard drive and you see that you can not safely remove I HIGHLY recommend just wait till you can shut down if that is how you have to do it because you really do not want to have to deal with that ghost drive mess. for those interested the exact error was Error 1327 Invalid Drive G:\ and to make matters worse on her pc everywhere it showed the G: drive it was grayed so there was no way to change that drive letter itself back to C. Really strange but by the google search not very rare.

I know but there seems to be so many users complaining about " will not recognize battery" issue, but I'm not sure if every case is in fact a non Dell battery issue. I just think if you purchase a Dell battery you would have a better leg to stand on if in fact you still had the issue with a new Dell battery and it could be possible, you know in case you had to call Dell. Right know if you call Dell there going to tell you that you're using the wrong battery. I would not doubt if there is a circuit on the mother board that detects the dell battery only and forces the user to buy Dell battery only----It's a guess...

Yes, the power cord has the green light lit. When I called Gateway, they had me take out the battery, press the power button for 30 sec, then start the computer without the battery in in. It started fine, then died. I tried it again, same thing. He said it may be the internal power supply. I went out for several hours, came back, put the battery back in the computer, plugged in the adaptor cord, and all is working fine. I'm afraid to move this thing in fear the charging light won't come on again. (I'm using the same outlet I tried early when it wouldn't work). They told me it would be 10 days to get it back from repair. I just backed up my important files as this is my work computer. I'm going to observe it to see if the charging light continues to stay on...I really don't want to send this in for repair unless I HAVE TO.

As it turns out, Dell did decide to expedite shipping so I got in time to try it. BUT - they sent the same incorrect item - just the empower and car plug - no actually adapter. Just absurd. Then they wanted me to call fedex to arrange a return. I emailed them that I wasn't taking any more time on them - and they could email me a label - which they just did. I wound up paying for one-day shipping through Amazon to get a non-Dell adapter on the day or her flight(I have prime anyway - so it was just an additional $4. I bought 3 different adapters bc. there was no way to be sure which might work with dd's dell laptop (it's new enough that it's not specifically listed as a compatible laptop). Good thing I did. One item was not the appropriate item. One never came - and one arrived in a nick of time and seemed to be the right one - a Kensington car/air ac/dc adapter - that fit her laptop. Raven - thank you for that link. Sounds like a great program - unfortunately they left on the 27th. But I may look for something similar for my smartphone. I think I already downloaded an app that does that for the phone. Mike - I do know that there could be any type of plug (empower,car type plug or regular ac) - and that there may or may not be a plug - and it may or may not work. Of course, neither my daughter nor husband has gotten online to email me that they've arrived and are okay. Guess I'll find out soon whether it worked. Thanks. Lynn.