Inspiron 1501 battery not working

Earlier BIOS updates for the 1501 require the update be run under Administrator control. See the info for the A14 BIOS for how to do this. A16 did not show this requirement, but probably should.

Hello to both Jamie (with the same problem I HAD) and to Kirk to the suggestion.

For almost a year now I had the same battery warning at startup described by Jamie.  A couple of days ago I too had time to spend so I downloaded the new Bios-A16, but kept getting an error message-number 5 saying I didn't have admin rights.  Thankfully Kirk gave some specific info that I read from the previous Bios version-A14, it gave instructions not found on A16.  So, I tried right clicking the file to run as administrator but that didn't work, then I unactivated my user account control despite the warning from windows.  I ran it again and it worked!!  The Bios is the newest version and the battery error is fixed and gone.

I hope this helps you Jamie and others too.  All the best,

Jim

Thanks so much!

I believe it is all fixed up now.  My lack of computer knowledge, lead me to believe I just need to do the download and when I restarted my computer, it would take effect.  I don't have any experience with downloads that require being run.  Just out of curiousity do a lot of downloads need to be run?  I may be downloading updates and never finishing them due to a lack of experience on my part.  I believe the day I downloaded the bios, there were 16 other downloads from dell I downloaded and I never ran any of them.

Does anyone know if there is any kind of basic computer update/maintenance on line classes that are offered.  I definately need some more knowledge in keeping my computer running optimally and really don't know how to do it.

Thanks so much again!

Thanks so much! I believe it is all fixed up now.  My lack of computer knowledge, lead me to believe I just need to do the download and when I restarted my computer, it would take effect.  I don't have any experience with downloads that require being run.  Just out of curiousity do a lot of downloads need to be run?  I may be downloading updates and never finishing them due to a lack of experience on my part.  I believe the day I downloaded the bios, there were 16 other downloads from dell I downloaded and I never ran any of them. Does anyone know if there is any kind of basic computer update/maintenance on line classes that are offered.  I definately need some more knowledge in keeping my computer running optimally and really don't know how to do it.   Thanks so much again!

You are welcome.  As far as the updates are concerned, yes, as far as I know all updates need to be run so they can be activiated.

All the best

Good to read the BIOS upgrade solves the "The battery cannot be identified" issue in the Inspirion 1501.

Seemingly, BIOS program code uses an internal list of "allowed" laptop battery types. Prompting the BIOS
error on the screen when the laptop battery doesn't return the correct type.

It might be interesting to know what laptop battery type you have. The laptop battery information can be
retrieved by double clicking on the battery in the system tray (windows.)

If you can - please post the info in the screen here for others to see.

The other route is (Windows XP Pro - SP2)

Start - Settings - Control Panel - Power options

The select the Tab "Power meter" and click in the battery icon for the battery info.

NHC - Notebook Hardware Control also displays a few of those parameters.

Cheers!

I took a look but can't seem to find what you are talking about.

The box I get when I double click only tells me battery life, battery plan and then 3 choices of power options, mobility centre and how to conserve power.  Nothing to indicate what type of battery I am using. 

Interesting to note, while in one of these windows there is still a notification that  "Your battery can no longer provide sufficient power to your system and needs to be replaced"  I have been using the battery on this computer and I have had no issues with it.  I think the update just failed to update that error message.

Is there another way to find the battery info you were mentioning?

I am running Vista and neither the power options or the NHC is available to me.  Sorry.

I did a quick search on this site but couldn't find anything to tell me how to locate battery details.

I also have a 1501 and started getting the same "unknown battery it won't be charged" message at boot. Funny thing is, it's the original battery so not sure why it suddenly expired...anyway, I also did the BIOS 2.6.3 update (i was running WinXP), but the laptop froze during the flash, no response from mouse, ctrl/Alt/Del, nothing. I left it alone for about an hour then finally turned it off. Now it's a brick. No video, no bios post, no beep codes, nothing. I get a power light, a quick spin of the fan and cdrom drive light blinks. I found several threads on the mydigitallife forum about recovery, but nothing seems to work with this 1501. So now I'm out a laptop and looking at $150 for a used ebay motherboard, or just buy a new acer laptop for $299 from Microcenter...sucks man.

Update the BIOS of your 1501 battery,If the problem still exsit, i suggest you buy a new one and this link may help you.

http://www.udtek.com/dell_Laptop-Battery_csf_1_2a_41.html