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Dell Inspiron 6400 battery dead?

post #1 of 6
2/26/09 at 2:25pm
Thread Starter 
Hi everyone,

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 which I bought in the UK new from Dell in April 2007.

The battery is a 9 Cell type (upgraded when bought).

Within the first year it got used on the battery most of the time.

After that it has been plugged in with battery (for backup incase of power outage) about 95% of the time.


Now the power only lasts a few minutes before it totally dies. It charges up to 100% and discharges normally down to roughly 85%. Then this is the strange part, it jumps all the way down to 6% charge!


I've tried calibrating by discharging all the way, and charging up all the way but no difference.


New batteries are around about 80 pounds, not really something I can afford currently. I would like a battery as backup incase I need to use my laptop away from the power supply for a while.

If the battery is dead (depending on responses) then I'm looking for a new battery, the Dell 9Cell also has really bad reviews about bad life so any other brands that will fit without harm?


Thank you so much in advance, any more details at all please ask!
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post #2 of 6
2/26/09 at 2:56pm
My personal is such that an original battery is safer than a 3rd party replacement. But I am not writing them off either, if the item comes from an established seller with good warranty.

In your case, I suggest to stay with the stock specs, not an upgraded/souped up battery.

cheers ...
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post #3 of 6
2/27/09 at 12:20pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks qhn. I totally agree 100% I would never normally buy 3rd party items but in this case I hear the Dell batteries are bad anyway. Most likely I'll go with the standard battery but will have a look around and see what else there is too.

Just had a frightening thing. Thought I would discharge the battery to half way from 100% (for storage) and then all of a sudden a few mins later the computer was going to sleep, turned it back on and poof, nothing. Tried turning on and nope battery dead not even a flicker of the lights. Works fine with the charger plugged in....

Also when I push the battery checking light when in the laptop all the lights just flicker as in it's trying to say something. When outside the laptop it just doesn't light up at all.

So open to recommendations.
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post #4 of 6
2/27/09 at 2:11pm
All things point to a bad battery, at the moment.

cheers ...
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post #5 of 6
3/12/09 at 8:38am
Thread Starter 
Hi guys I got a new replacement 9 cell battery from Dell and all is great again. Taking a lot longer to charge and is lasting a hell of a lot longer, back to the 5 hours or so I used to get .

Thanks for the help .

It's amazing how fast batteries can stop working, I mean just a few weeks before it started really playing up it was working quite good (less time on battery power though).

Not going to leave this one in unless I need it and also going to take it out when gaming etc (anything with high heat) also will store at 40% charge.

Edit: Wow.... 6 hours not bad going for Wi-Fi and 1/2-3/4 screen brightness.
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post #6 of 6
3/12/09 at 11:10am
Cool, glad to hear it works out for ya; and thanks for the feedback

cheers ...
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