Laptop battery not charging fully

Yesterday, my laptop battery was failing to charge, stating it was at 56% capacity. Early Monday, and Sunday, it was working fine. Ubuntu Linux tells me the total battery capacity is 85% of the intended design wattage, but 56% of 85% is less than half the total capacity, and I barely get an hour and a half's use out of it. I run a Dell Inspiron 1501, the battery is 9 cells, 85Wh. Any opinions?

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2008 06:34PM by turkey_machine.

Wasn't it charging at all (only consuming power, so the percentage dropped,) or just did it stop at 56%?

Anyway, check your adapter etc, sound childish, but it happends to me often one of the parts isn't connect entirely well.

Or it could be the operating system having a little error in detecting your battery span.

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Felipe Massa, World Champion 15:34:11pm- 15:34:21pm.

"barely getting" an hour and a half out of a laptop battery. I'll wait for gav to explain why they're all @#$%& and just go and buy a new one

turkey_machine Wrote:
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> Any opinions?

You need a new battery

The more batteries go through a charge/discharge cycle the smaller their total capacity becomes over time. Likewise, if you leave it plugged into the mains this can damage the battery depending on the laptop. Some realise you've plugged them in and power it straight off where others still drain from the battery and top it up from the mains (bad design, but there you go).

I've seen similar symptoms before on lots and lots of laptops and everyone was the battery. Only once have I seen the power supply being unable to put any charge in the battery.

I have a similar problem with my HP Pavillion dv6000...

The battery does get fully charged but its energy is quickly wasted in less than 1 hour of usage. I thought they had to last at least 2 hours or more?

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/16/2008 05:52PM by Bruninho.

Sapo Wrote:
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> Wasn't it charging at all (only consuming power,
> so the percentage dropped,) or just did it stop at
> 56%?
>
> Anyway, check your adapter etc, sound childish,
> but it happends to me often one of the parts isn't
> connect entirely well.
>
> Or it could be the operating system having a
> little error in detecting your battery span.


Windows and Linux report that the battery's at 56%. I left it to charge overnight, and double-checked the adapter. That works, since I took the battery out and the laptop stayed on (so mains power works then), so I reckon it's the battery, but just wanted opinions as to what it could be. I was aware Lith-Ion batteries don't have a greatly extensive life, but I thought it'd last at least 2 years...

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

No idea Jethro. Probably just a faulty or dying battery. More likely the battery than anything else. Give Dell a ring, even if it's not in warranty - unlikely to get far, but it's worth a shot.

Bruninho Wrote:
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> I have a similar problem with my HP Pavillion
> dv6000...
>
> The battery does get fully charged but its energy
> is quickly wasted in less than 1 hour of usage. I
> thought they had to last at least 2 hours or more?

Why do they have to last 2 hours or more? Read what Glyn said. It's just lithium lon batteries. They're all the same. They all drop in performance. It'll eventually get to a point where it won't even switch on, even after a full charge. It's the same with all lithium ions batteries, be they standard rechargeable AA, camera or laptop.

Need a new one, and unfortunately, they're not cheap, unless you want to risk a no-name elcheapo brand.

6-cell replacement is £79.99, first result from Amazon supplier Clones UK. I bought a replacement adapter last summer (left mine at uni before going back home and could not for the life of me find it) from them and have had no problems since. I'd like a direct replacement. Dell has the 9-cell for £185, (so thanks but no thanks, I'm a student FFS), if anybody knows of a good UK supplier with a 9-cell genuine replacement in stock, please let me know.

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Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

No one will have a genuine Dell battery for much less than Dell themselves. If you see one, then you have to be absolutely certain that it's a Dell one, as they will try to suggest it's a Dell battery until you read the small print, and you realise it's some cheapy firework from China.

Batteries get to the point where you have to consider whether a new laptop is going to be more beneficial. Ie, will the new battery last until something else on the laptop breaks or needs replacing or fixed. Replacement components for laptops aren't cheap. Ever.

Bruninho Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a similar problem with my HP Pavillion
> dv6000...
>
> The battery does get fully charged but its energy
> is quickly wasted in less than 1 hour of usage. I
> thought they had to last at least 2 hours or more?


Also my craptop is HP Pavillion and battery was like that since it was new.. Lasts just slightly over ½hour..

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

Not running x264 by any chance, are ya?

I drained it this morning, and I'm gonna re-charge it tonight, so I'll see what happens, then I'll ring Dell and see what my options are. A battery not lasting 2 years is probably unusual, so I may be able to get a replacement, but I'm not hedging my bets or anything.

I am also aware about what a genuine Dell part looks like. Cheapest 9 cell that looks genuine is from the same supplier I found at Amazon. I'll get in touch with them and see what it's like.

---

Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

What that means?

I dunno.. I havent really needed this battery so much. Only during thunderstorms and so on.. :P

Kimi, so, Massa Fernando Sebastian is faster than you. Can you confirm you understood that message?

turkey_machine Wrote:
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> A battery not lasting 2 years is probably unusual, so I may
> be able to get a replacement, but I'm not hedging
> my bets or anything.

Not at all. It depends entirely on use. If laptop has a system like Glyn describes, then even slight use (say an hour a day average) could make the battery stop behaving. I'd assume, as a student on here constantly, and worse, gaming on it, that even a decent laptop will take some punishment over 2 years.

It's one of the major negatives of using laptops as desktop replacements. They're not.



turkey_machine Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I am also aware about what a genuine Dell part
> looks like. Cheapest 9 cell that looks genuine is
> from the same supplier I found at Amazon. I'll get
> in touch with them and see what it's like.

I can print stickers at work...

x264? I suppose he means AMD Turion X2 64bits ?

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x264 - A free H.264/AVC encoder. It's a great way to encode, provided you don't fancy using your system for a day or so to encode a movie.

Google is your friend.

---

Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.

The battery's topped out at 52%, so I reckon it's on its last legs. I'm giving them (Dell) a ring later to see what my options are. A replacement 9 cell battery's about £90, but the laptop still works off mains, so I'm happy.

---

Everyone knows that million-to-one chances happen 9 times out of 10; indeed, it's a common requirement in fairy tales. If the human didn't have to overcome huge odds, what would be the point? Terry Pratchett - The Science Of Discworld

GPGSL S5 Race driver for IED.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2008 01:25PM by turkey_machine.

gav Wrote:
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> No one will have a genuine Dell battery for much
> less than Dell themselves. If you see one, then
> you have to be absolutely certain that it's a Dell
> one, as they will try to suggest it's a Dell
> battery until you read the small print, and you
> realise it's some cheapy firework from China.

I've bought a number of cheapo batteries for laptops before... somewhere around 60 of them and they've all worked as described and I can't fault them. What I can't say though is what their performance drop off is over lots of charge/discharge cycles. They're worth considering though depending on the price gap to the manufactures battery.

When buying replacements keep an eye on the mAh rating. I've seen larger capacity cheapo batteries before, but a lot of them are a smaller capacity than the one that came with your laptop.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/17/2008 01:44PM by Glyn.

the chick i used to nail was at the pub tonight and it was just plain awkward. But the keyboard guy from Pink Floyd died so the rest of us had something. Shame about laptop batteries though, they just die.

lmao!

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Sim

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