Inspiron

[lappyboi]

I have a two year old laptop that I use almost exclusively with the charger. Today I used it on battery, and the system shut down due to low battery after less than ten minutes. I restarted the computer and have been using it for over an hour with what windows is reporting to be 0% battery. I ran Window's battery report, which told me that the full charge capacity of my battery is just 2,816 mWh, less than 10% of the original 41,998 mWh design capacity. According to the battery report, I have been using the computer at a battery level of 11 mWh for an hour, which is obviously impossible.

How can I get the computer to accurately measure it's battery level and capacity? Or am I just stuck having incorrect battery measurements and no way of knowing how much charge I actually have remaining.

[JOcean]

Try the reset on the system. Keep in mind however that that average battery life is 1-2 years or about 400 recharges. To reset  the system disconnect the battery and adapter then press and hold the power button for 30 seconds. Then reconnect everything and see if the battery charges normally.

Also the following from the Microsoft site might help.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-fix-the-wrong-estimate-time-on-battery-...

[lappyboi]

Unfortunately I have a  Inspiron 13-5378, which has a built in battery. It looks like you only have to remove the bottom panel to get to the battery, but I'd like to avoid doing that if it isn't necessary. I will be trying these instructions on calibrating the battery and will update my post if they work. https://www.ultrabookreview.com/20942-calibrate-laptops-battery-fix-inaccurate-wear-info/ I'm not expecting my laptop to have it's original battery life. I just want to know how much battery I actually have. I've been using it for well over an hour at what is being called 0% battery.

[lappyboi]

I tried calibrating the battery with mixed results. The first time I attempted to do so,  I completely drained the battery and then plugged in the AC adapter. the reported battery level quickly rose to 98%. After about 30 minutes with no change in the battery level, I unplugged the charger, thinking that the battery was fully charged. I was wrong. The full charge capacity dropped to just 1,000mWh in the battery report. I then tried a second run at calibrating the battery. I plugged the laptop back in and let it charge until it reported a fully charged battery. I drained the battery again and then let the battery charge back up. The battery report was unchanged at this point. I let the battery fully drain again and then ran the battery report, which now reported the capacity to be about 4,500mWh, a small improvement over where I started out. I plan to run a few more cycles of fully charging and discharging the battery to fully calibrate the battery. I expect that it will get up to around 10,000-15,000mWh, based on the fact that the discharge took a bit over an hour with a power draw that was around 10W according to both battery monitoring apps that I used.

[mathewgx]

Something is very wrong with the battery health on Dell. I have a Dell 5570 , bought at 11/7/18. After one month battery health decreased to 83%. I spoke with Dell and they changed my battery. New battery was at 95%. After 2 months battery health decreased and then increased and decreased again. Just take a look at battery report file. Battery capacity history Charge capacity history of the system's batteries PERIOD FULL CHARGE CAPACITY DESIGN CAPACITY 2018-10-11 - 2018-10-18 33.242 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-10-18 - 2018-10-25 38.039 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-10-25 - 2018-11-01 40.686 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-11-01 - 2018-11-08 41.895 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-11-08 - 2018-11-15 41.895 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-11-15 - 2018-11-22 37.198 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-11-22 - 2018-11-29 40.885 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-11-29 - 2018-12-06 40.892 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-12-06 - 2018-12-13 38.390 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-12-13 - 2018-12-20 37.973 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-12-20 - 2018-12-27 37.973 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-12-27 37.973 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-12-28 37.973 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-12-29 37.973 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-12-30 37.973 mWh 41.998 mWh 2018-12-31 37.973 mWh 41.998 mWh 2019-01-01 37.973 mWh 41.998 mWh 2019-01-02 37.608 mWh 41.998 mWh 2019-01-03 36.788 mWh 41.998 mWh Now is at 83%. Seems like when battery percentage is at 10-15% and you close it then battery health decreases and I can't figure it out. Why does this happens? We bought a laptop from DELL to do our job and we have to look every day the battery health. Really , something is very wrong with DELL.

[robert p]

Hi matthewgx,

Thanks for posting.  Apologies that your system is not performing as expected.

The amount of time the system shows your battery will last depends on a variety of things, mostly how much and which programs you are running, the brightness of the screen, etc.

Here is information from the Dell knowledge base you may find helpful:

Checking Battery Health Status on Dell Laptops and Notebooks

How to Troubleshoot Dell Laptop Battery Issues

If you need additional assistance and the system is under warranty, please contact me privately. Be sure to include your personal information (name, address, telephone, email) and your computer's service tag number in your message. Thanks.

If there is no warranty, then you could contact our Out of Warranty team to get a quote for a paid service call.

[mathewgx]

Dear sir ,

I'm not talking about how much the battery lasts.

I'm talking about battery health.

My laptop is under warranty (4months old) and it is the second battery with the same problem

First battery showed 80% heath after only 1 month.

Dell recognised that this is not normal and sent me a new battery which had 99% health.

Now , after 3months battery shows 83%health. And not only this. As you can see in the above logs battery helaths goes up and down periodically.

This does seem normal to you?

[robert p]

Yes.  Here is information you may find helpful:

Battery life may decline over time - this is considered a normal characteristic of a rechargeable battery and not a fault covered by warranty.

Checking Battery Health Status on Dell Laptops and Notebooks

[jayray732]

That's an absurd and uneducated response.  Yes, batteries reduce over time.  They do not reduce 20% over a few months.  If that was how batteries worked, portable electronics would never have taken off.

I have an Inspiron 7000 series with the same issue.  I haven't started addressing it yet, as I'm not looking forward to having to waste a lot of my time back and forth with tests and Dell support.  Battery health dropped almost 10% within the first few weeks - of which it had light use.  It's now down almost 20% - again with extremely light use - as I approach the 6 month mark.

Of note - my Lenovo laptop, which is 2 years old, has had virtually no degredation of battery health.  Neither has my iPhone, which is 6 months old.  Or my iPad, which is 4 years old.  And so on.

[mathewgx12]

I insist that battery wear level does not reduce over time due to batteries limitations. it reduces only if you let your battery to reach 20-25%. Then , when you reboot battery wear level drops by 20-25%.