Question : Problem: Power drain with AC adaptor plugged in

I have a Dell Latitude CP M233XT with a weird problem.  When I use the AC adaptor, the battery life indicator in the systray tells me that the power level is going down, yet it also says that it's charging.  The power level will continue to drop until the system shuts down.  It will not run at all on just AC, as I found out when I pulled the battery out.  Is there something that I need to do in the power options file in the control panel?  

Answer : Problem: Power drain with AC adaptor plugged in

That has all indications of a faulty circuit for running off AC.  If you can try it with another suitable adapter, it will narrow down whether the adapter is bad or the notebook is bad.  Does it charge the batteries ok?