Dell Inspiron 9300 Battery question

[sills18]

Ok, I wanna see if I get a different answer. My laptop is about a year old and when I went to turn it on yesterday morning it wouldn't turn on without the powerpack plugged in. So I plugged it in and it worked. But the battery light is blinking non-stop(orange warning light). I took out the battery and put it back in and nothing changed. I pushed the battery life button on the bottom of the battery itself and there are 5 lights but only the 1st,middle, and last light, lights up and blinks. What is the problem? Is it a dead battery?

 

[Ididmyc600]

Ok, I wanna see if I get a different answer. My laptop is about a year old and when I went to turn it on yesterday morning it wouldn't turn on without the powerpack plugged in. So I plugged it in and it worked. But the battery light is blinking non-stop(orange warning light). I took out the battery and put it back in and nothing changed. I pushed the battery life button on the bottom of the battery itself and there are 5 lights but only the 1st,middle, and last light, lights up and blinks. What is the problem? Is it a dead battery?

Hi

I am guessing that there are some bad cells in the battery, If its a year old try ringing Dell direct and ask them, it may still be a warrantied item.

However if you bought it second hand then Dell wont deal with it and your only course is to buy a new battery.

Regards

 

[sills18]

Yes it is a Brand new battery. I'm on the phone right now with them. Its taking for ever to get someone...ill let you know what happened..

 

[sills18]

Ok after being on the phone for an hour with Dell Technical Support, with a guy I barely could understand, I got the problem fixed. I told him my problem and I dont think he quite understood what I was trying to tell him. So he then connected to my computer and was screwing around on the Battery options (which didn't do anything). Then he was like, well I'm not to sure what the problem is( I could have told him that) and I'm going to just send you a new battery. So thanks for your help guys, I'm getting a new battery with-in a few days.

Thanks

 

[Ididmyc600]

So thanks for your help guys, I'm getting a new battery with-in a few days. Thanks

Well Hooray for Dell, that must be the first time i have heard of Dell actually being helpful.

Nice to see that you are now sorted, Here's some advice I found regards Laptop batteries.

If you are going to actually run on battery often, then just use it
however you wish. Note that extreme discharges (below 15% or 20%) will
shorten the life, and that Lithium batteries have a finite life (number
of charge-discharge cycles), after which they become pretty much useless
(the number varies, but it's in the mid-hundreds). It's not clear to me
how "partial" charges and discharges figure into this.

If you are operating on AC power most of the time, I'd charge the
battery fully, use the computer on battery down to perhaps 25%, charge
it back up to about 60%-70% and then TAKE IT OUT OF THE LAPTOP and store
it at a nice comfortable temperature (climate controlled room temp).
Some people will recommend refrigeration, which is ok as long as you
don't freeze it, but I think that the difference between room temp. and
refrigeration (which is theoretically better) is not significant as a
practical matter (I have decade old batteries stored at normal room temp
that are nearly as good as new).

I buy, sell, repair and refurbish laptops and see hundreds of batteries
per year. My one comment to you is that the very worst thing that you
can do is to leave the battery in the laptop when the laptop is running
on AC power (plugged into the wall) for long periods of time. We are
not sure whether it's overcharging or heat (and it's probably both to
varying degrees on a model-by-model basis), but this will very often
destroy a perfectly good $200 battery in 9 to 24 months. Otherwise,
these batteries can last from 5 years to more than a decade.

[If you do store it, some use every 3 to 6 months is highly desireable,
but 1 or 2 charge - discharge cycles is all that you need.]

Regards

 

[sills18]

My one comment to you is that the very worst thing that you
can do is to leave the battery in the laptop when the laptop is running
on AC power (plugged into the wall) for long periods of time

thanks for all the advise. Now I know why my battery died. Because I would just use my battery til it gets low and then just plug in the AC and then just repeat that day by day.