XPS 15 7590, false battery warning

Hi everybody,

I'm reporting the exact same problem as many of you have already described. Dell XPS 15 7590, bought in August 2019, BIOS version 1.9.1. 

Experienced this issue about six months after first use and still happily present. I called Dell during warranty and vastly described the problem, they replaced the motherboard but not the battery, nothing changed. 

just in case, PPID is CN0GPM03SLW0097H414IA03

I think it's cheaper for them to just ignore this issue exists and move on, just like they did with sleep states and the audio latency issues on the 9570. I originally bought a 9570 and had to go through a lot of hassle (audio issues, dead pixels, broken fans...) and my laptop being broken by a Dell technician only to get it replaced for a 7590. Now I am stuck with this laptop that also has issues and I can't sell it second hand because I don't want anyone suffering this laptop.

The only thing I can do is promise myself not to buy a Dell product again in my life.

I have the same issue and I'm interested if Dell has a solution.

Specifically, since January 2021 there are occasions where I start my laptop without the power cord attached and as it starts up the low battery light (orange) comes on and the laptop shuts down (hibernate?). When I immediately plug the laptop in it starts up just fine and the battery today had 63% remaining and the battery health is excellent.

@ppXeon $2700 xps is just over a year and a half old. Have not had a good experience with Dell support. I had a square of random colors  display issue occurring at very infrequent times. Most often when waking the display up. This was when my laptop was still underwarranty and dell replaced the mothboard. Issue seemed to be fixed but since the problem was very infrequent it turned out not to be fixed at this problem is still happening today but my warranty has expired. Well after the dell technician replaced the motherboard I later opened the bottom  my laptop and noticed several screws missing on the bottom of the case and screws for the fan. I complained and they send me replacement screws but this shouldn't happen in the first place. Now I am having this battery issue. 98% of the time I have had the laptop it has been plugged into the wall so very few charge cycles. Dell continues to disappoint with there lack of concern about there customers. Not a apple fan but at least they will fix known issues on there machines even if they aren't under warranty. For $2700 for a laptop that continues to have issues is ridiculous and I expect more from customers support that just them repeated sending me a copy paste message "I can understand your concern and let me assure you that we can reach a feasible solution to this problem." But then not coming to a feasible solution causing me to restate my concerns and results in them giving me another copy paste reply.

I contacted Dell Support and although I have 2 years of Premium Support, they say the battery is only covered for the first year. There's no way I spend more money to buy a new battery, as the issue doesn't come from normal aging, but from a defective hardware.

My latest attempt to have a sensible conversation with support -- after 2 calls and numerous emails...

Thanks for all your contributions, mroset! You truly helped narrow this issue down really well and I'm glad you were able to get some competent support.

All - For those of you that have purchased a genuine OEM A07 battery, where did you source it from? Hoping to save some money if there are reputable parts sellers out there selling for ~$100, though I'll splurge the $150 if I have to.

Update: Dell support replaced my battery. My machine appears to be working correctly now.

Relevant background: Dell initially told me that it was a battery issue and batteries are not covered by the basic one-year warranty. However I had purchased my machine from a company—Costco—that doubles the factory warranty period. So, once I hit Year 2, I was eligible to use Costco's "Concierge" support channel. They made me do all the things again that I've already tried—including a factory reset, so it was a painful process, but in the end Costco accepted my machine for a warranty repair and forwarded the ticket to Dell. Dell had me ship the machine to their repair center; they returned it to me with a new battery.

Possible caveat: Dell repair changed the settings on my machine so that it no longer hibernates. I asked them if that was done deliberately or if that was something they had done while troubleshooting or testing and forgot to undo. Their reply was that their techs "made some changes in the settings to resolve the issue and request you to leave hibernate as it is. Some time [sic] enabling hibernate mode tends create issue you reported to us, so they have disable [sic] it for you."

So, it appears that Dell's position is that we just shouldn't use hibernation.

I think the problem is resolved for me, as before the repair, besides the specific hibernation-related problem we've been discussing here, my machine would completely lose its charge overnight if sleeping with hibernation disabled. (Disabling hibernation was one of the first things Dell support tried when I first reported the problem and they remoted into my machine.) I'm a little reluctant to re-enable hibernation right now, as Dell is telling me not to. I've spent *so* much time on this issue over the last several months that I need to leave well enough alone for the time being. The trade-off is that although the machine loses more charge overnight with hibernation disabled, it's always instant-on when I open the lid. And I was left with plenty of charge with the machine having slept from Friday evening to Monday morning.

I have an update :

After contacting Dell Support, they told me to run diagnostics from the BIOS (which of course didn't find any error). After that they accessed my laptop remotely and told me to check something in the BIOS (it was already configured the way they wanted). At first they said they didn't believe it to be a hardware issue, but after asking their superior they came back and said they would do an exception and replace my battery for free.

I'm actually positively surprised by this as I didn't even need to ask for it.

(Just note that I'm in France so it may be a different experience in other regions.)

Another input from France as well. 

I had a similar issue with a false battery warning. At startup, my laptop would detect a battery level below 5% instead of the real level. Problem would arise at any real level below 85%. 

I contacted the support and asked for a diagnostic and a replacement under my 4years warranty period. After a few emails, I got them to replace the battery.

My laptop is working properly again. Thank you Dell France. 

Update : Dell replaced my battery (on-site service included with my 2 years of Premium Support), and the new one is an A07. So far I only tried once right after the replacement, and it booted successfully with a 32% charge level. To me it seems to be fixed but I'll make sure to post here if the issue shows up again.

I am also experiencing this problem when the battery gets below 40%, the next time I boot it up it will give me a critical battery warning and to attach the charger.

My bios version is 1.9.1

Has anyone had any success with Dell outside of warranty period?

Thanks

@andy_55  et al,

Unfortunately for users, the situation seems to be country-by-country.

If you happen to be in a country with good consumer protection then you have to insist and you may get DELL to recognize that it's not users' fault and as it has been clearly documented in this thread there is a manufacturing issue with batteries of PPIDs *A03, *A04 (maybe more?)

People in the UK and France reported having DELL replace their batteries outside the manufacturer warranty.

The response here in Canada for me has been:

BUT, I know I've some protection. Manufacturer's warranty =/= Legal Warranty, see below the consumer protection doc:

So, through the Consumer Protection Agency here I've personally initiated legal action against DELL. I Will report here as I hear back from them, they currently have 10 days to provide a formal response.

I am having the exact same problem for several months now. My machine is 18 months old. When I went to the Dell website to purchase a new battery there are none listed for the XPS 15 7590. Can anyone provide a link to the battery for our machines?

Thanks,

Dave