Mini 9 battery issue

Hi all:

I was the original poster at mydellmini.com.

Today we ran both batteries to exhaustion, using the same machine, running the same software, with power management turned off.

The KR "24.4 Wh" battery expired after 4h:27. The CN "35.5 Wh" battery lasted 4h:05. Down to about 10% remaining, both draw-down graphs were close to linear. After that point the rate of power usage dropped as the machine apparently tried to "last a bit longer" - and the KR battery lasted much longer in this phase than did the CN battery. After eliminating this last 10% effect - ie extending each graph in a straight line to the x-axis - the times to exhaustion were 4:08 and 4:04. ISTM that these are close enough to be the same.

So this begs the question as to why the data is so different - and which is correct - both voltage and capacity!?!?

Enquiring minds want to know....

I should also apologize for the amount of time that has been wasted here. I wish I'd thought to run this test earlier. Undoubtedly there is a problem - but ISTM that it's probably a data reporting problem rather than a true physical defect in one of the batteries. Let's see if Dell has an answer....

Several other sites are now reporting a possible problem with some Mini 9 batteries: http://mydellmini.com/forum/battery-capacity-24-wh,-not-32-wh-t1723.html http://www.engadget.com/2008/12/18/some-dell-mini-9s-said-to-be-shipping-with-smaller-batteries/ http://jkkmobile.blogspot.com/2008/12/dell-mini-9s-chipping-with-smaller.html I received my Mini 9 in October and have confirmed it to be the KR variant reporting 24Wh and 11.1v at full charge. I normally get about 2.75-3.0 hrs from a full charge, which I think is short.

Was quite good hype while it lasted...Don't trust everything you read in that rag 'wrongadget':emotion-4:

Was quite good hype while it lasted...Don't trust everything you read in that rag 'wrongadget':emotion-4:

Funny, the engadget article was sourced from jkkmobile which linked the "mydellmini forum", anyway I think my use of the words "possible problem" and links kinda leaves it up to the reader to decide trustworthiness.

One bonus out of this, you are now on the top of my "Don't trust everything you read" list :emotion-2:

All three of those posts have the same point of origin, so the number of mentions does not indicate a broad issue. The Inspiron Mini 9 is configured with, and has never shipped with anything but, 32WH batteries. A third-party test software program being used in the field doesn't properly program every vendor's battery to report power (versus current) capabilities, and so the utility is not properly reporting the actual battery capacity. We have confirmed this and all packs are 4-cell 32Whr, and will deliver more than 4 hours of battery life in typical usage.

Thanks for the confirmation.  Hopefully, the knee-j er k reactions people were having over this non-issue will subside quickly!:emotion-16:

All three of those posts have the same point of origin, so the number of mentions does not indicate a broad issue.

The Inspiron Mini 9 is configured with, and has never shipped with anything but, 32WH batteries. A third-party test software program being used in the field doesn't properly program every vendor's battery to report power (versus current) capabilities, and so the utility is not properly reporting the actual battery capacity. We have confirmed this and all packs are 4-cell 32Whr, and will deliver more than 4 hours of battery life in typical usage.

A third-party test software program being used in the field doesn't properly program every vendor's battery to report power (versus current) capabilities, and so the utility is not properly reporting the actual battery capacity

i purchased a mini 9 for my daughter's christmas present and can't get it to hold a charge at all. after being on hold and transferred 3 times for an hour, dell said that since we had the ubuntu system, we would have to call back mon.-fri. during business hours. any suggestions?

Jay

Looks like Dell has a Bios update for this issue.  See this article  http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&dl=false&l=en&s=gen&docid=60F1B26CE2611EF2E040AE0AB8E14C46&doclang=en&cs=

Actually the battery reporting issue is still alive. I have had an open TS ticket/log since December 18th. The last update I recieved from a TS supervisor was; the issue wasn't fully resolved with A04 bios and a future bios release would take care of the reporting issue.

The battery charges and discharges fine, it is simply what is reported to be the voltage and Whr of the battery that is wrong

Has anyone tried the big batteries on E-Bay? I got a 77WH from powerfeng and it charges to 98% but when in use the on(white button) and low battery(amber button) flash alternately, It seems to work but the flashing lights make me think it will explode! Dell mini-9

Has anyone tried the big batteries on E-Bay? I got a 77WH from powerfeng and it charges to 98% but when in use the on(white button) and low battery(amber button) flash alternately, It seems to work but the flashing lights make me think it will explode! Dell mini-9

Have a look at this thread starting with the 5th post down on the page, at the MyDellMini forum:

http://mydellmini.com/forum/8-cells-"77wh"-battery-is-hereǃ-t2250s140.html

I posted this just before I came across this thread.  It looks like I'm not the only one having a problem with my mini's battery. I'll try the bios thing and hope that improves things.

I've been horribly out of touch with using my mini 9 netbook since I bought it over a year ago.  Of course the hardware warranty is up and my first problem is that the battery doesn't even last for two hours ona full charge.  I haven't used it enough to say it's worn out, I think it was faulty when I got the mini.  (It was refurbished).  Is there anything I can do besides buying a new battery to get more life from the computer?  And can I buy the same Dell battery from other than Dell since they cost half the price that Dell is charging.

My second question is that in reading everything I could about the battery problem, I found that there were 26 downloads available for me to update my mini most of them are recommended.  I've had problems in the past downloading all the so called updates for other things and I wonder if someone could advise which I should really download that would really help improve the performance of my mini 9. 

Thanks in advance for your help.