Dell G3 3579 battery problem - amber light blinking continuously

Question

I have a Dell G3-3579 in whose battery began failing. My client (the owner) replaced the battery with a third-party battery but found that new the battery didn't charge either. I have examined the laptop's behavior.

The OLD BATTERY exhibits the following symptoms:

• LED at charging port is usually white/steady when the laptop is OFF

• LED is white/steady while the BIOS screen and the Windows login picture are shown

• LED starts blinking 4-amber-1-white when login is performed

• LED quickly changes to continuously-blinking amber and stays there until system is powered down

• Sometimes the 4,1 leading to constant amber blinking occurs shortly after plugging in the adapter

BIOS Battery Information:
     - Primary Battery - 0%
     - Not Installed
     - AC Adapter = 130W

======================

With the NEW battery, the system behaves as follows:

• LED at charging port is white/steady

• The battery indicator shows that the battery status is "0% available (plugged in)"

• BIOS Battery Information
   - Primary Battery - 0%
     - Idle
     - Health: Communication Error
     - AC Adapter = 130W

======================

I have tried:

• Powering down, removing the adapter and battery and pressing the power button to reset the power circuit

• Removing adapter, battery and CMOS battery and pressing the power button to reset the power circuit

• Checking the CMOS battery (3.1vdc)

• Powering up, uninstalling the battery drivers in the Device Manager, powering back up to reload the drivers

At this point I considered purchasing a genuine Dell battery but have seen a number of postings suggesting that the mainboard may be bad and I don't want to throw good money after bad. Can anyone offer a definitive diagnosis? Thanks in advance for your opinion and the time and effort you spent reading this.

DELL-Cares · Answer

We tried reaching you on a private message asking for the Service Tag number to ascertain the warranty but did not receive a response. Please feel free to reply to the private message whenever you are available.

Earendils_Star · Answer

I beg your pardon for not answering; we had a family crisis (a grandchild with lymphoma) and I didn't think to check back until now. My client had ordered a third-party battery for this device, as I reported in my original post. To troubleshoot the device properly, I ordered a genuine Dell battery on the day after the original post (2-25-2021). It arrived two days ago and I have installed it.

It is not, as far as I know, under warranty.

Here are the results, with the new, genuine Dell battery, as reported in the BIOS 'Battery Information' section:

Primary Battery
Charge Level: 0%
Status: Charging
Health: Good
AC Adapter = 130W

The indicator light at the power port is on and normal (white and steady). Nonetheless, the battery is not charging; I have booted to BIOS and waited for 1 hour and it still says "0%". Further, when I boot to Windows, the battery indicator reads "0% available (plugged in)".

Please advise me of any further diagnostic or other measures I can take. Again, my sincere apologies for not answering sooner.

Earendils_Star

ShantlerR · Answer

Did you ever get this issue resolved? Experiencing the exact same issue.

SkyVolcano · Answer

Having a similar issue. Prompts indicate battery issue, but my keyboard doesn’t work properly and all the ports, including network card do not work either.

Not sure if it is some sort of malware. Hard reset seemed to get it to work twice but still indicated a battery issue. After a third reset, no working at all now.

XPS

Dell G3 3579 battery problem - amber light blinking continuously

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