Latitude D820 Plugged In, Not Charging

I think the battery is dead and needs to be replaced. Ebay will be your cheapest bet, but beware of "compatible" or "replacement" ones. Make sure it's a genuine Dell battery.

Is there any diagnostic tool to tell me if the battery is fried?  I have searched google and have noticed that this problem "plugged in, not charging" seems to be a reoccuring problem accross the laptop market.  Seems that there is maybe a driver or something in Vista that prevents the charging.  I just don't want to start throwing money at a problem that may be solved with a download or enabling a feature within Vista.  I am a college student and can't afford to do that.  Has Dell noticed this problem at all?

Oh, if you check Ebay, genuine batteries are only ~$50 to $60.

Not really. Dead batteries are typically detected by erratic behaviors such as this, or because it's unable to hold charge.

 

There's no way to "fix" a dead battery...it's dead...

Batteries carry a charge and the charging device regulates the battery very well to prevent over charging (overcharging = expanding/exploding). What laptop users don't understand is that batteries wear down when they are at full charge the fastest. A battery delivers an electric charge by the acidic exchange within the unit and the more electricity it generates the more the acid is working. Batteries wear down at different rates for different reasons. If you use AC power for your laptop, don't plug in your battery because the charger will keep it at %100 causing it to wear down faster. You can't store batteries without a charge because the acid will become inert so the only way to keep a battery going is to constantly use it.

 

Laptop battery lifespan is just over a year. If you get more use out of this than your doing good. If you get less then the battery is most likely bad.

I understand how a battery works.  Normally this situation would lead me to believe it is the battery, but it just mysteriously stopped charging fully.  I know they lose life, but i thought it was more gradual than overnight.  It went from being able to support a full charge to all of a sudden supporting a 40% charge overnight.  If the issue is the battery, then dell could do two things to help users maximize the life of their battery.  1. They could develop a software to keep the battery at 40% charge constantly when plugged in.  This is the optimal charge of a lithium-ion battery if I am not mistaken. Then if you have to leave soon you can charge it up to full charge.  2. Many people leave their laptops plugged in for long periods of time, I know I do.  Dell recommends that a user should remove the battery when on ac power, but dell also locates a footpad fro the laptop on the battery.  So if the laptop is on a desk constantly (mine is), then you would have to find a series of blocks to support that corner.  I am not bashing Dell here, I am a loyal customer.  I am just trying to figure out my real problem before buying components that aren't needed.  After googling this issue it seems it is a widespread issue across the market.  So that is why I am hesitant on buying a battery when the issue could be Vista.  To check the battery's life I have thought of checking its output voltage, but I am unsure which of the 6 or so plates are the negative and positive leads.

Bypass vista by performing all the tests through the BIOS, watch the battery charge indicator and bench test it without allowing it to boot to Vista. This of course would be through minimum HDD spinup so it wouldn't be an accurate test but a test to eliminate the OS as the cause. I do not think it is an issue with vista as it is reading the information the motherboard is giving it.

 

Your points about the software are not new. I wondered about things like this myself, it seems that no motherboard manufacture has developed hardware that would allow one to use software to manipulate the battery charge like this before.

 

I didn't realize this model had a foot on the battery, this is a true design flaw and something that I really get irked about with various laptop manufactures and is a small point that will make me not buy the unit.

 

The only unfortunate thing about checking the output voltage is that the battery isn't a combined output. It is a (sometimes a combination of 4) different positive and negative ports, and you can find out which one is the negative terminal by looking at the motherboard. Because of the multitude of positive outputs you won't get a voltage reading equaling the labeled output, its the combined output of all positive and negative terminals that determines this, you only check the battery voltage to see if it is constant. You can do this with any combination of the 6 terminals as long as you get a voltage reading.

 

Modern battery design's use literal 'nanotechnology' in their designs. Microscopic permeable plates and other teeny tiny components give a more uniform and reliable charge for electrical components and when they go, they go fast. Its like a blind down hill race and it hits the bottom at a random point in time. Never doubt battery failure, its why Dell had a massive recall in recent history.