Limit charging battery to 80% for the XPS13 developer edition

Question

I have had my XPS13 (9350) developer edition notebook for 16 months now. Still lovin it.

Recently I started noticing one edge of the touch pad sticking out about one millimeter.

Some research on the internet suggests that it is because the battery bulges. And that this is a common problem.

So I started to wonder if there was a way to reduce the maximum charge to 80%. Then I found that:

https://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity/72570

But no mention of how to do it with a Dell device. Later I found out that there is a Dell utility, but only for Windows.

So, how can I restrict the charge for a developer edition?

jphughan · Answer

First, if your battery is bulging, I would really recommend contacting Dell Support to get a replacement, since that can be a safety hazard.

But to answer your question, even on my relatively old XPS 15 9530, there are options in the BIOS to manage battery charging. I believe the default is Adaptive and there are some other pre-defined profiles, but if you choose Custom you can specify a **bleep** to limit max charge. You can also specify a minimum charge that the battery has to self-discharge to before the system will start charging it again -- so for example if you set your max charge to 80% and your minimum charge to 50%, then once the battery reaches 80%, the system will continue to run on AC power, but it will NOT keep the battery topped up. Instead, the battery will be allowed to self-discharge down to 50%, which normally takes a few days, and only then will the system charge it back up to 80%. This increases battery longevity, as long as you can deal with the potential inconvenience of only having a 50% charge available when you disconnect from the wall.

ulrichard · Answer

I did contact dell support. They told me that battery bulging was not an issue with my model. They also told me they couldn't send me a new battery for me to replace. Instead I would have to send my notebook overseas, and pay $70 for somebody to even look at it. Further they declined to comment if a replacement battery that I saw in a local web store would fit.

Thanks for the hint with the BIOS settings. Just adjusted to 75% - 85%. I wish I knew sooner about this.

ulrichard · Answer

Looks a lot like this: https://www.dell.com/community/General/XPS13-Swollen-battery/td-p/5121613

amreshraj · Answer

hello am currently on the custom battery charge 50%-90% charge limit, it stops charging at 90%(says:plugged in not charging) but the battery doesn't seem to reduce over the the hours! is this normal,shouldn't the battery decrease?

DELL-Jesse L · Answer

amreshraj,

Click the links below for resolving plugged in not charging error.

How to Resolve Battery and AC Adapter Issues on Your Dell Portable Computer

My Laptop Battery is Plugged In, But Not Charging

For my notes, click my username and send me the pc service tag number via private message.

ShedG · Answer

Perhaps the links in this post will help. https://www.dell.com/community/Linux-Developer-Systems/Setting-the-battery-charge-level-within-Linux/m-p/5798554/highlight/true#M8345

I use this on a 9370. I don't know if it will work for the 9350.

Svetulcho · Answer

Hello, i want to ask about limiting the levels of charging/discharging and whether these settings are available at my laptop Dell Vostro 7580? I haven't find such a settings, that's why i think because the model is newer, there is something automised and optimised in that meaning. I wonder is it safe for the battery to be plug to charger all the time, during work (the manual keeping of the 'healthy level' 30-80% is too boring :D ) .. Thank you! :)

Dell-SreejithR · Answer

@Svetulcho

Thank you for your message. Yes, there is an option to limit the charging & you can use custom charge setting & limit charging at a certain percentage. This setting is found in BIOS under Power management – Primary battery charge configuration.

However, having the AC adapter always plugged in will not affect the computer. The battery will stop charging after it is completely charged & work on AC adapter power until the adapter is disconnected.

Svetulcho · Answer

Thank you for the helpful info :)

aircraftman3 · Answer

Hi!

Ive been in the battery health and life topic for the last month. I was happy to find that Dell has options to limit the charge and I did a research and found that the best limit is to keep the battery around 50-60%, just as it is with the storing of it for a longer period. I can't take out the battery and store it so I figured I will use the laptop plugged in and keep 50-60% charge.

For a long time I didn't understand and thought it is a bug that when I set the charge to minimum 50% and maximum 60% the battery charges to 60% and stays at 60% for a really long time. I was sure that the charger charges up the battery whenever it reaches even a little below 60%.

Only today I discovered- while reading this thread- that when the battery reaches 60% and switches to AC like TOTALY- only today I understood that the discharge of the battery isn't happening on the battery! I have thought that when it reaches 60% it changes the source to battery and work off it, and I was surprised that the charge isn't going down. NOW I understand tthat when the battery reaches 60% the laptop switches to AC power and the battery is like completely cut off, that is why it doesn't show you less than 60% for a long time.

That is a great thing. You can find more on the batteries extended life on battery university site.

Thank you Dell.

XPS

Limit charging battery to 80% for the XPS13 developer edition

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