INSPIRON 1200 Battery Recalibration Required optimize charge capacity..

Question

Hello All! My buddy Karl's Inspiron charger went DEAD in Iraq.  I have the notebook and a Dell charger.  The charger runs the laptop and seems to charge the battery.  Before the charger went AWOLin Iraq, the message above began to appear.  The same message; Battery Recalibration Required to optimize charge capacity appears now.   I have done the Recalibration Process 3X's and the message remains.  I have updated the BIOS to A07.  There is some utility named 'RECALBAT' that I have been unable to locate.  Does anyone have a suggestion or direct link to the software needed?   Karl uses this as his life link back to the USA.   In advance, thanks for your help!

anonatec · Answer

If it is a NIMH battery and the Bios utility is unable to calibrate the battery, it is likely that the settings in the EEPROM chip or the chip itself is bad. I am in the exact opposite position you are in, I can't get a battery calibration to occur, even when draining it to zero. There is a utlity from Dell called Batrcal.com, you could try. If you do a search you should be able to find it. I do not know if it will work with the Inspiron 1200, though. (It seems to not work in mine.)

I would put the A05 bios back in, unless you have an issue that was fixed in the later revisions. The a05 does not have a battery health section, only battery state, and when working I got better results with the battery calibrations.

Li-ion batterys do not suffer from the memory effect that nimh batteries have because of the eeprom chip that stores full and no charge capacities. You can find replacement batteries for the

the 1200 that are Li-ion. Here's a link http://www.atbatt.com/product/6970.asp

Might save you some headache.

btw, next time u drain the battery completly, pull it out of the laptop and let it sit for a couple of minutes, then plug back in and charge up. Seems to work alittle better at charging the battery up when my wear level goes up, maybe it will help with your calibration procedure.

Message Edited by anonatec on 11-02-2007 12:37 PM

jlindercat · Answer

Hi.  If you find out the answer will you let me know?  I am getting the message over and over...have tried to do the three steps but it keeps going back to an earlier step in between.    jlindercat Louisville, KY

williamjohn · Answer

Were you able to find out why we continue to get this message after preforming ht recalibration?

williamjohn · Answer

Were you able to find out why we continue to get the message after we've preformed the recalibration?

jlindercat · Answer

William - I did the recalibration thing at least 3X before it stopped sending me the message. I'm hoping that means the process was successful. The other helpful suggestions were too advanced for me anyway, I'm afraid. I would have had to take it in somewhere if I couldn't figure it out. Good luck.

williamjohn · Answer

I've tried this 4 times and the message continues to show up on startup. Thanks for your advise

GilesBathgate · Answer

The recalibration process requires

1) a charge cycle

2) a discharge cycle

3) a second charge cycle

Most people do not realise about the step 3 because steps 1 and 2 are done while the instructions appear on the screen.

Most people just switch the laptop back on when the power goes out.

What you have to do instead is plug the mains adaptor back in and observe that the battery charge light is lit.

After about 1hr when the light goes out you can turn it back on.

troyber98 · Answer

Thank you very much, I would have continued to do the charge because I would power it back on with the charger in. If only I would have read this hours ago...lol Thank You again

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INSPIRON 1200 Battery Recalibration Required optimize charge capacity..

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