My daughter bought a (used) Dell Inspiron B-130 for school a few months ago and has gone through 3 AC adapters for it. The pattern is that they will work for a while, then get so that the cord has to be in just the right position for it to work, and finally it won't work at all.

She's gone through three power cords in 4 months - the last one lasted for about 2 weeks.

My question:

Are these power cords THAT poorly made, or should I consider the possibility that there may be something wrong with the socket on the computer where the power supply plugs in?

If it turns out the Dell cords are just junk, can anybody recommend a reliable replacement? At $30US a pop, this is getting to be expensive.

i don't know your particulars nor can I diagnose yours, obviously, but can tell you there's been a general problem with the laptop power connector on the Inspirons. (i know as i have two nieces with Inspirons. Only one had the problem but after some online searches i found there was a trend among many, not all, Inspirons).. I've never had problems with my Latitudes.

The bigger problem is the power connector is actually soldered to the mother board making it too involved to try to replace yourself unless you're experienced in soldering things to the board. If you check around (search online) you;ll probably find places that will service it for a flat fee.. tho that fee runs around $100+ bucks. Don't know how long you have it, but may as well try Dell also

We have a large (over 50) number of clients with the Dell Inspiron B130 Celeron laptop. We have not seen ANY problems with the power adapter or socket to date.
We are seeing a number of screen problems that result in failure, that are not inverter failures, but appear to be like an impact problem in the top right center.

funny that we both post about the same time... but try googling
dell inspiron power connector

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More results if add in plug jack