Batteries

I have a Dell Inspiron 1501 with a battery message at boot time, and now it is discharging the battery. I for got to mention that this laptop is new and has been sitting on the shelf for some years and recently put it to use. I have had a very hard time getting the bios update to work and now it is broke again and back to square 1!.  I am not having any luck in getting this bios update to work for the second time. It went bad while I was to upgrading my harddrive because of low disk space. I am at the point of insanity. I think I am doing it correctly Idownload it to desktop and run it as admin it gies through the process of updating without prompting for an answer to go forward, I even ran the flashable rom file a second time because the first attempt failed I also gave it firewall rules to allow. Has there been any success with ending this problem. I have DCSE certification although you wouldn't believe it reading this message. lol

dbarselow

Is the battery original?  If it is, it's probably dead.  If it's not, is it a Dell battery or a cheap third-party battery?

Does the system recognize the AC adapter, or is it too, unrecognized (F2 at powerup to check).

Nowhere in your orginal post do you specify the type of battery installed.

1.  Is the AC adapter a Dell OEM adapter, or third-party?  If it's third party, it likely WILL NOT charge the battery.  In this case, try a known good Dell OEM AC adapter.  Is the adapter identified correctly in BIOS setup (F2 at powerup)?  If it is not, the battery WILL NOT charge (even if it appears the adapter is putting out the correct voltage).

2.  Once you're sure the system DOES recognize the AC adapter, the next suspect is the battery.  Third party batteries are usually - to put it mildly - abject junk.   That may well be the problem.

If the Dell OEM AC adapter is NOT recognized, try a new one.  If that too isn't recognized, the next suspect is the power jack - unfortunately, on this model, the jack is hard soldered to the mainboard.  Unless you have the tools and expertise to do the repair, replacing the mainboard will cost about the same as having the jack replaced professionally - about $150.

If the AC adapter IS properly recognized, though - the overwhelming odds are the battery is at fault.

There's absolutely no point in flashing the same BIOS revision a second time - in fact, it's very rare that a BIOS update will fix a charging problem at all.  Last ditch effort before a mainboard replacement is to unplug the system, remove the battery, and hold the power button for 30 sec.  Then plug it in again and see what you get.

Note well:  if the AC adapter is recognized but the battery won't charge, the odds are overwhelming that the battery is the faulty part.

I will ask you to read the post from start to finish and then make a post to my original post. No the battery is not original and it is a third party and I did contact Dell using email and followed there link and which after it worked well using the bios upgrade. There is more than what meets the eye to this matter. For instance I was work on upgrading the hard drive and low and behold the problem had returned after it working for a weeks time. And pressing F2 only brings me in to bios setup.

Hi EJN63

I know the first post of this thread was a bit sloppy on grammar my fault, but I thought I did a fearly good job of clearing things up in my second attempt. The laptop is running using a brand new aftermarket battery. After researching the internet I begun to feel that Dell was somehow blocking aftermarket batteries from being used in their laptops. I called Dell to confirm this and I was told flat out that this was not the case for sure I was told. Well I emailed Dell and was replied to with a short and to the point message with a link for the bios update and it worked until I tried to clone the partitions over to a larger drive and now I am back at beginning the WinPhlash is not getting the job done.

I will ask you to read the post from start to finish and then make a post to my original post. No the battery is not original and it is a third party and I did contact Dell using email and followed there link and which after it worked well using the bios upgrade. There is more than what meets the eye to this matter. For instance I was work on upgrading the hard drive and low and behold the problem had returned after it working for a weeks time. And pressing F2 only brings me in to bios setup.

If you're trying to flash the BIOS with an unrecognized battery, that won't work - you must have a  working battery with some charge left in order to flash the BIOS.  Yes, you can force the system to flash the BIOS without a working battery, but that's a dangerous procedure - and it's very unlikely a BIOS flash will solve this problem.

To keep the profit margin on clone batteries high, manufacturers omit the electronics necessary for the system to recognize the battery.  They also commonly leave out some of the safety protection circuit so these batteries can be downright dangerous to use, as well.

Hi  dbarselow,

Dell always recommends you to use Dell compatible battery. You may contact Dell spare parts department of your region to order the battery.  

There are very few third party batteries that are well-engineered -- most of them are just junk.  They're sold on price alone - they very seldom have the correct logic circuitry that enables the system to communicate with them.  They've also been known to be unsafe - leaving out the safety circuits is one way the manufacturers keep the price down.  You get what you pay for.

Hi Sujatha I have a compatible battery but for sometime it would not be recognized in the system bios. Well I actually came up with a fix after many hours of research and trial and error. So is that a yes or no ? I'm not sure.

This morning I corrected a bios issue, the battery not being recognized in my Inspiron 1501. it was working for at least 30 minutes as soon as I gave it a physical connection to the Internet within seconds the issue had return edit shows in the admin tools. Dell is aware of this issue by posting a bios fix at their website but getting it to work is another thing I simply want to be able to use my battery with out it being crippled it have the bios for the repair it works only when it is not physically not connected to the Internet.

I fixed the issue on my Inspiron 1501 of the battery not being recognized. It involves a few shutdowns and restarts but when I give it a physical connection to the internet it is back to the same condition when I started.

I have been told that aftermarket parts are fine for use in dell systems and laptops is this true. I have a laptop that has a aftermarket battery only problem is the battery is not recognized at this moment. I have in the past contacted dell and was sent an email  with a link to a download a bios update it worked fine till I upgraded my hard drive to a larger drive. Now the battery is not being recognized again, I have been trying to flash the bios and it flashes to the correct bios but does not recognize the battery. Any help to solve this matter would be most apreciated.

Sincerely,

David Barselow

Dell Tech ID:567138

Hi dbarselow,

I am afraid; Dell does not have any BIOS update for these kind of issues. As I have already informed, Dell does not recommend using third party batteries.

Tgats why I use the AC adapter. LOL

I want you to look at this image