Just like printer manufactures chip the ink cartridges, so Dell chips the power supplies, and batteries. Your laptop or desktop will refuse to charge the battery and down-clock the CPU to some minuscule fraction of full power if you dare to try to avoid the Dell Consumables Tax. I spent $3000 on a Dell Precision M6400 16gb quadcore desktop replacement, only to have the PS die after a year. Dell wanted $110 at the time, and I purchased another brand with the same voltage and current for $20 plus shipping, only to learn about the greed of Dell. A followup call to Dell support was among the most aggravating and frustrating experiences I've had. This experience caused me to go from a staunch supported to a rabidly anti-Dell, bad-PR mouthpiece. : )
That said, here's the expose on the AC adapter teardown, showing the cute little - and utterly functionally useless - chip that causes the problem: http
/www.laptop-junction.com/toast/content/inside-dell-ac-power-adapter-mystery-revealed.
And here are two solutions for the clockspeed:
http
/www.pbus-167.com/ Notebook Hardware Control
http
/cpu.rightmark.org/ RightMark Clock
The laptop batteries can no longer be charged with a non-Dell-branded powersupply - fixing that's beyond any hacks most folk will be comfortable with. The only choice is to wither bite the bullet and buy a ridiculously overpriced, intentionally delicate Dell (R) ToastingBrick(tm), or else mock up or buy an external battery charger - which is also expensive and nontrivial.
Dell won't change their policies - so Don't Buy Dell. There are better brands out there, ones that come with much better service plans and don't involve a girl named Amy with an Indian accent.