Swollen batteries and warranty

Welcome to the Dell Community  @LouSantilli 

Sorry to here you are having a problem with a "Swollen Battery"

Please remove the battery as soon as possible!!!

Dell Latitude E5270 Owner's Manual

https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/latitude-e5270-laptop_owners-manual_en-us.pdf

 

Battery Remove/Replace starts on page 9

 

Handling swollen Lithium-ion batteries:

 

https://topics-cdn.dell.com/pdf/inspiron-xps_faq6_en-us.pdf

 

As you should know Dell, IBM and HP have about the same failure rate: 

 

Apple's are the worst.

 

 

Best regards,

 

U2

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Batteries can swell as they reach end of life. A battery is only warrantied for 1 year. Buy a Dell replacement battery if it's available. Or use the adapter alone without any battery. That works as a desktop replacement. Beware of off brand batteries from auction or marketplace sites. Many scams out there now.

WOW - just spoke to the Dell OVERSEAS call center and got the script answer - what I could understand. Contrary to your answer and being a MSEE in the electronics field there is no reason for this to occur with PROPPER design and circuit monitoring. At a minimum there should be a battery failure notification. The batteries swell as a result of over voltage / current, both of which are conditions to design to prevent. The swelling is indicative of a pending fire hazard - hence if you have flown on a commercial flight in the last 5 years why they ask you the ion battery question. Dell at a minimum should consider battery replacement and firmware changes to provide notification of failure for a SAFER product.

@LouSantilli 

Your laptop comes with a "SMART" power system.

The center pin of your AC adapter is used to communicate with the laptop to prevent over voltage/current.

It also regulates the charge/discharge of the battery to prevent over charging and accelerated deterioration of the battery due to being fully charged all the time.

What I have noticed is that Dell is starting to sell laptops with "SMART" batteries.

"SMART" batteries use the SMbus to communicate with the system.

I would hope Dell has built-in some type of notification about a battery failure.

I have not had a chance to study/learn the technology of a "SMART" battery yet.

Regards,

U2

NOTE: This is why it is very important to always purchase Genuine OEM AC adapters and Batteries.

Yeah, but with the original batteries giving out so soon, the motivation  to stick to original supplies is rather limited ...

They will only help if you have some sort of extended warranty.  If you are like me and have a fleet of these laptops stop using one of those old style docks stop as i think they have some thing to do with this and update the Bios.  Happened to 11 of my Dell E7270's in a space of three months surprisingly as if by coincidence they are all 2 years old. Dell replaced the batteries on warranty within 24 hours each time..

I presume your Dell sales rep arranged those out of warranty replacements as the warranty for the E7 series is just 1 year even if you have 3yr or > ProSupport.  Ours did the same for a while but now we pay for the replacements.

It's very sad to see that no warning or alarm is triggered in BIOS as the battery swells to the point of splitting apart the laptop and despite either 'adaptive' (default for 1ry battery config) or 'docked' (1ry AC use) being set in BIOS.

http://tiny.cc/ta3miz

The year is 2020 and Dell has still not managed to fix this ongoing battery issue on their Latitude 7000 series laptops.

I work in IT and our enterprise uses Dell Latitude 7440 laptops for our employees. Since the pandemic started we have ordered thousands of new laptops and they all have the same issue. The laptop overheats right out of the box and crashes with Blue Screen of Death. After a little while the battery bulges and the plastic casing is cracked because the battery is expanding, presumably, due to excess heat.

Our engineering team is working closely with Dell to find a solution, but Dell has reported to us that this is an issue with the hardware. When a laptop's battery bulges or the system will not start, the employees have to order an additional laptop to replace the broken one. The new laptop is of the same model number and has the same issue. We are just going through Laptops like crazy because they do not work properly.

Just thought I'd post this to inform Dell of how their business is doing with a VERY LARGE client in the US.

Most businesses replace notebooks on a 3 year cycle - is there a  reason why you're using 5-6 year old notebooks (and expecting them to run correctly when they're exceeded their battery lifespans by at least a factor of two - if not three)?

The 7440 was current in 2013-2014 -- and replaced by the 7450 in 2014-2015.  Batteries are consumables - they do need to be replaced periodically, no matter the name on the outside of the system.

I have the same issue with a Latitude 5580. Machine is connected to OEM Dell Docking Station in office and OEM Dell power supply at home, laptop is 2yrs old. I get the fact that non shielded batteries (non enclosed in hard metal case) are the new norm in laptop design for a multitude of reasons. I don't buy into the theory that constant use of power supply might have an effect on these, that would be a bad design (overcharging, undercharging) or incompatible/bad hardware (voltage or current are not on specs).

But here is what bothers me, if this a known fact that the batteries will fail in this manner when they reach EOL, why design a machine case/electronics that do not compensate for this? On my system battery is not easily removable by consumer (outside like older/other models). Why is the case designed in such a way that the battery position will likely damage/compromise other components when this happens? Right now on my system the bulge in on the keyboard side (not under the laptop) and makes putting the laptop in its carrying bag not safe. Why, because the bulge is making contact with the actual LED panel (screen) so if by any reason the laptop receives pressure on top (as it might when closed inside a bag, which is Dell branded) the screen will crack, as the bezel is about 2mm separated from the palm rest when in the closed position. I currently have zero warning from neither BIOS/UEFI, dock, LED indicator or OS stating my battery needs replacement and my battery life is around the 3hrs mark, which as an end user gives no indication It needs replacement. Outside an obvious bulge on my machine which I found no documentation on its user manual as being "normal" and "safe" and that it indicates an EOL battery.

I'm a developer and my system is a company system so I would just give it to the field support people and I get a new battery installed. But as I was considering acquiring a pair of these systems for my personal use, all these little details play a part on my decision to do so.

"I don't buy into the theory that constant use of power supply might have an effect on these, "

There's a problem here.  If you're leaving these connected to AC most or all of the time, and charging to 100%, you are absolutely contributing to the batteries' demise.

This is exactly the wrong way to treat a Li cell battery.

I have my second Dell work laptop in a row where the battery has become severely swollen. First one was a E7240 now a E7490. Although the laptops spent most of their time on a docking station, I have been very pedantic to set the charge threshold to only start charging between 60% and 70% to increase battery longevity. In fact for both instances, despite being heavily swollen, the batteries were still in excellent functional condition at the +- 2 year timeframe when they became swollen.