Alert System battery voltage is low

Then why, after changing out my surge protector, am I NOT getting the message anymore?

Have you tried that one?

Hi Chuck,

Welcome to Dell8300land! If you read from the beginning of this thread you will see that many people including me were not using a surge protector. Likewise clearing the VRAM only stopped the problem for a week or so.  Only removing and reseating the battery seems to have fixed the problem for me. I think it is a complex issue which manifests itself in various ways giving rise to the same symptom. At any rate, it is certainly a fault with the motherboard (and or firmware) or its interaction with other systems components.

Ron

Hollo again;

Never thought I would post about the 'low battery alert' again.

However after my first adventure 15 months ago I again received the harmless alert.  I watched for several days (and cold boots) but it persisted. I therefore went through the vigorous routine of shuting down my computer and unplugging the power cord.  This time from the back of the computer, (which is easier to reach than my surge protector) for one hour. After I reconnected  and powered up I had 'lost' the alert.   It has been 3 weeks and I see no sign of it.  It will probably reoccur next year again and I will unplug again and post to this thread again.

I presumed unplugging discharges a capacitor of some sort. and resets a switch.

See you again

lckauth

Message Edited by delta7000 on 08-24-2005 07:19 PM

Here's my experience:

Dimension 8300, brought about 2 years ago. 2 months ago the "System battery voltage is low" popped up. After reading the thread, I tried to bypass my Belkin surge protector and plug the power to a wall outlet. The message disappeared immediately. Then I plugged the power back to the Belkin surge protector. Again, no message. This lasted until about a week ago when I had an unexpected power outage. The "battery low" returned. Today I tried the following:

1. Turned the "battery icon" on in my task bar. Didn't work.

2. Cleared the BIOS event log. Didn't work

3. Plugged the power to a wall outlet. Didn't work.

4. Cleared the NVRAM. Didn't work.

5. Pulled the battery off from the MB. Upon inspection I noticed the negative side (the one facing the MB) was a little foggy, sorta like the bathroom mirror. I cleaned it with 95% alcohol. Reinstall the battery. Magically it worked! Since the uninstall/reinstall was done in less than 5 minutes, all BIOS settings were kept.

I'll update the post if the message is back.

Update:10 days after, no alert so far - 10/22/05.

Message Edited by Tamer_Lu on 10-22-2005 06:07 PM

Well heck, me too.  I've just started receiving this message in the past hour.

I admit I haven't read all 19 pages of this tread.  But I have read enough to know what has and hasn't worked (per both Dell support and you guys).  Since this is a very recent issue with me I haven't yet tried any of the fixes -- but I certainly hope just reinstalling the battery fixes the problem.

I think I already lost my BIOS information as, upon the second reboot after I got the 'battery voltage' message, my clock and date info was wrong.  Thus, I seem to have also lost my subscriptions to such time-sensitive programs as my virus program.  (Guess that is another issue I have to figure out and fix.)

As stated, I haven't tried any fixes yet.  Still, I'm left wondering a couple of things:

1) Since this thread was started has Dell updated their information and admitted their liability?

2) What causes this problem to happen?  My Dell is a refurbished 8250 which I've had for about one year.  Prior to this battery message appearing I defragged my hard drive -- twice in a row (with a reboot in between.)

I've never purchased a surge protector from Dell and the one I currently have I've used with several other Dell PCs.  Too, there is no storm - electric or otherwise - in my area at this time.

I've Googled this issue and found a ton of posts.  Has Dell dropped the ball on this issue?  If my computer was a car the manufacturer would have mailed me a notice of the problem -- and fixed it for free!

Thanks for listening.

...

Quick follow-up ... after posting this message I immediately rebooted.  Upon doing so I did NOT receive the battery voltage message.  Perhaps the problem fixed itself??  We shall see.

Message Edited by DLee on 12-04-2005 10:01 PM

1) no

2) Since your clock and date info is wrong I think replacing the battery should fix the problem. I would do that first. If I remember correctly most of the people in this thread did not have problems with the time or date. I know I didn't. I have not had a problem since switching to a different surge protector (the third one I tried).

Message Edited by delta7000 on 12-05-2005 07:05 PM

Message Edited by Pig In A Blanket on 02-05-2006 01:14 PM