Hello Everyone!
I've been facing a peculiar problem with my Dell inspiron mini 270 of late. Its power light won't go off even after I switch off the laptop thus indicating that it is still being charged! What is even more strange is that in such a state I cannot restart my laptop until after the power light goes off on its own after a few hours. After repeated attempts, I have come to understand that this indicates that now the battery is discharged. Now when I put the power adaptor on and switch on the laptop, it starts. This effectively means that every time I charge the battery and switch off the laptop after some work, I HAVE to wait till the battery is completely discharged to start the laptop again. Guys, guys, I am at my wits end and have extremely close to tearing off my few remaining strands of hair. Any clues anyone?

Have you tried to take out the battery and put it back in?

Is it the power light that's not going off or the charge light?

Are you using the cable that came with the laptop to charge it?

After you suggested, I did take out the battery and lo! The power light went out, but the problem remains after I put the battery back on. And yes, the power adaptor was damaged previously, but I got it promptly replaced with a Dell Original. Are you suggesting that the adaptor is the culprit?
One more querry. What's the problem if I continue with the damaged battery (if that is so)?

This might be a problem with the battery itself. How old is the system?

Unfortunately, batteries are a little pricey to just replace on a "what if" or a "maybe". Have you tried contacting Dell? I know they have a tech line that charges you for help but I have dealt with them through email before without being charged.

Got it! But my query still remains - what will happen if I continue without replacing the batteries? Will it harm my laptop? Since batteries are not functioning anyway, I am using the adapter every time I need to use the laptop.

Sounds like the battery if still charging even after the system is powered off.
Does it run on just battery alone ?
If so how long does the meter say it will run for?

Just try a few tests with it plugged in and on battery alone to gauge whether it's time to replace it.

You can probably continue to use the "damaged" battery without any harm. Notice I said probably though. It's probably not the best to use a bad battery as it is more than likely not sending enough "juice" to the board. Also you may expeirence sudden loss of power to your laptop which could cause you to lose unsaved work. In my opinion you should be fine with using the bad battery, but it's not the best idea. Since you are using the power adapter when you're using your laptop then you shouldn't have a problem, but it kind of defeats the purpose of a laptop.