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Dell XPS M1210 - 9 cell Battery doesn't charge to designed capacity of 85Wh!!!

post #1 of 16
9/20/06 at 3:15am
Thread Starter 
Hi, finaly I got my M1210 last weekend and everything was ok till my studies at the Uni. I took my notebook with me and worked all day long on 9 cell battery (which came with my Dell), at first start it showed me about 8 hours of battery charge, so when I came home the battery was completely discharged and I plugged my notebook to charge it (with no turning on the notebook while charging). When I took my notebook the second time to the Uni, at first boot it showed me only 5h and 30 minutes left. When I came home the second time I downloaded BatteryInfo 1.2 and looked at the specs of the battery: Samsung SDI HF6746, Designed Capacity 86580mWh, Full Charged Capacity 70452mWh, Wear level 19%!!! - So does the battery brake, and it's something wrong with the battery? Should I return it? Or it's normal for such batteries? Please help me to clear the things out cause I don't know what to do...
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post #2 of 16
9/20/06 at 4:21am
With lithium ion, the general trend is that they age at a fixed rate from when they are produced and that is accelerated by how often they are discharged and charged. But, since they don't have memory, you can charge them any time you want... are you sure it was 8 hours the first time? If it showed up at your door and has about 7 hours of life, that seems reasonable. If it's 15-20% less than the 85Whr advertised.

I'm receiving my M1210 on thursday.... I'll let you know what it says for my batt. life. I doubt there is anything wrong with your battery with numbers like what you are posting.
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post #3 of 16
9/20/06 at 1:16pm
The wear level shouldn't be anywehre near 19% if you just got your laptop. You should contact dell and get a replacement. I've had my laptop for a few months or so now and my wear level was at 11% with only sparing use of the battery and when I contacted dell, they said it was wearing too fast and sent me a replacement.
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post #4 of 16
9/20/06 at 1:18pm
Another note though, if you completely discharge your battery very often, expect your battery wear to increase much faster.
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post #5 of 16
9/20/06 at 2:40pm
I've had my D820 since April, and it spends most of its time at home in the Docking station running on AC power. However, I do take it out from time to time on the weekends to chill in my recliner and watch some TV and IM my friends telling them how much it sucks . I also take it with me to class to record lectures and/or waste time playing a quick game or two. But my Battery is registering as having only 2% wear according to Notebook Hardware control and it's still registering at being slightly above the rated 85Whr
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post #6 of 16
9/22/06 at 7:57am
19% wear in a week is no-go....
Try a full recharge again, restart the system and double check the wear level....

IF it still says 19% or anything more than 2-3% , ask dell for a replacement
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post #7 of 16
9/25/06 at 11:08am
It's because DELL is gonna cheating us
http://www.notebookforums.com/thread175313.html

But before that, I have the same problem, each time I used the battery to below 10%~8%, then the wear level will increase 3%.
After I discharge it 3 times, then the wear level increased to 12%, and I find a method to do a "Battery Calibration". And the methods I listed below:

1.)Power Off the laptop, full charge the battery(make sure the battery is charged to 100% and the battery LED isn't in blinking mode)

2.)Open the laptop(still in AC), goto BIOS and monitoring the battery level, set the brightness to lowest.

3.)Unplug AC, don't do any operation, don't close the LCD and make sure the brightness seted to lowest.

4.)Wait until the power off itself, and plug-in the AC, full charge it (DO NOT TURN ON THE LAPTOP UNTIL IT FULL CHARGED)

5.)After the battery LED is stop blinking, turn on the computer(if you're in hibernate mode before, reboot it), then check your wear level....

After I done that, the wear level decreased to 10%, and match the Designed Capacity(78000mWh) in DELL self-test CD.

P.S. Please read the link I posted on upper.
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post #8 of 16
9/30/06 at 5:55pm
anyone try this with a more worn battery? I have 47 and 49% wear ones but don't have a spare host computer to be doing the drain charge cycles on
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post #9 of 16
10/3/06 at 1:51am
Update: What are you guys getting for charging rates? I don't remember exactly how fast the 47% worn battery charges, but it was still fairly normal. Something 's wrong with the 49% one. It takes almost a day and a half to charge. Currently, it's registering at charge rate 11mW.
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post #10 of 16
10/3/06 at 11:09am
hmm, the charging sensor circuit on the battery seems to be acting up unfortunately...
The charge rate for batteries on low s over 20Whr which trickles down to lower values when the battery is over 90-95% charged...but 11 mWhr is ridiculously low
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post #11 of 16
10/3/06 at 2:37pm
I just called Dell to have 6Cell battery replaced. 15% wear since I got it it's going up every other week. Phooey. Crappy SMP batteries.
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post #12 of 16
10/6/06 at 3:27am
wow I tried the calibration with my two batteries. The one was cared for and lightly used is a samsung model and was 49% worn before and 48.1% now. The other one that I used heavily (sanyo) through many full discharges (maybe once every day or two) was showing 47% before and is now showing 8.1% worn. Life is also much improved on that one. What the hell
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post #13 of 16
10/6/06 at 11:20am
Quote:
Originally Posted by WilliamG
I just called Dell to have 6Cell battery replaced. 15% wear since I got it it's going up every other week. Phooey. Crappy SMP batteries.
Keep your battery charged whenever possible with the power adapter plugged in. Battery wear fast without the a/c adapter! All my notebook battery are less than 5% wear, with one of them over 2 years old battery.
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post #14 of 16
10/6/06 at 4:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ziddey
wow I tried the calibration with my two batteries. The one was cared for and lightly used is a samsung model and was 49% worn before and 48.1% now. The other one that I used heavily (sanyo) through many full discharges (maybe once every day or two) was showing 47% before and is now showing 8.1% worn. Life is also much improved on that one. What the hell

What is this calibration thing and how are you doing it? To my knowledge, there isnt a built in bios battery calibration thing or anything for dell laptops.
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post #15 of 16
10/15/06 at 7:16pm

Anyone knows about the warranty policy for a Dell laptop battery?

What wear level is considered necessary for the battery to be replaced? It is covered for the same length as the system warranty (3 years for example)??

Any input is appreciated!
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post #16 of 16
10/15/06 at 7:44pm
I don't know but in the bios, it says that my battery is charging normally but has exceeded it's useful life blah blah blah and how it thinks it's normal wear and how normal wear isn't covered by warranty.
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