Help! System battery voltage is low

Question

I have a XPS gen4 running WinXP. About 2 weeks ago I started getting a 'system battery voltage low' warning. The system clock also started failing to keep the correct date and time. After checking the forums here I put in a new battery last week and everything was fine for a week and then this morning the warning is back on boot up and the clock was wrong. Why would it run fine for a week with the new battery and then warns again? Is there some other way to fix this? Thanks in advance.

fireberd · Answer

Unless thee is a problem with the motherboard components that are drawing too much current and causing the battery to run down, it may just be the replacement battery.  I've seen  new 'old stock' batteries in stores that were either almost gone or had a very short lifespan.

jago2 · Answer

Hi, thanks for your quick response. I bought the replacement battery at Staples, maybe I'll get another one somewhere else. What would happen if the warnings continue and I ignore them? Would it cause the system to fail during boot up? Thanks.

fireberd · Answer

It won't 'fail' but you may have to press an F key to continue or have to enter the BIOS then continue with booting.

jago2 · Answer

Fireberd, I didn't see your earlier reply when I posted, think our 2 messages crossed I'll leave the computer on then. Thanks for your help.

jago2 · Answer

I bought another battery and replaced the one inside that's only 1 week old this afternoon. As soon as I reboot it said 'invalid configuration info, please run setup' and then 'alert system battery voltage is low'. Fortunately the system ran setup automatically and nothing is lost. But the clock is messed up. Anyone know of any possible solutions or should I just leave it and hope nothing worse will happen? Thanks.

fireberd · Answer

Unfortunately as I noted, there would appear to be either a BIOS problem or another problem on the motherboard.  As the BIOS is integrated on the motherboard, if the BIOS is bad the only recourse is to replace the motherboard.  The clock time is also a function of the BIOS and since it's not getting the required voltage, when the AC power is off, the clock is also resetting.  If the PC were left powered up and running, you would not have the problems - that's an option depending on your spcific situation as some users never turn off their PC's.   My daughter is one of those, she has a three year old Gateway that is always left on.

korrson · Answer

My 2 second answer is to check if the battery clip is tight enough to clip onto the battery.

I kept getting the "system battery voltage low" for a while until I moved the clip around and pressed the battery in harder. Then the message went away even with the old battery.

I had a spare new one but it seems to work with the old one.
That lets me think that even if you had a new battery and it still said low, that maybe it just wasn't connecting well...

The battery is hard to see and get to because the darn video card is right in the way!

Message Edited by korrson on 11-06-2007 05:19 PM

jago2 · Answer

When I put in the new battery I did notice that it shifted a little whenever I pressed it so I thought about a bad connection. But not sure what you meant by moving the battery clip around. Mine sits inside a circular plastic battery socket. On one side is a tab which when pressed pops the battery up. The bottom of the socket has a metal connector (clip?) which the battery sits on, not sure if that can be moved. And the shifting seems to be sideways inside the socket. You're right, I have to lift the video card up in order to get to the battery. I switched off the machine last week and then booted up again the next morning, and surprise - no low voltage warning. I've been powering down every night since and so far no problems.

Davet50 · Answer

are you perhps connected to a surge strip???

I believe that there is a Dell FAQ reguarding this issue and it has to do with plugging a system into a power strip.

link

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=7A389493FD3C4A09AECCB0038B0E9E5F&journalid=3EAA05D08A65A791E040A68F27284CCE&Query=c3lzdGVtK2JhdHRlcnkraXMrbG93&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_8200&ServiceTag=&contenttype=-1&os=-1&component=-1&lang=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false

Message Edited by Davet50 on 11-11-2007 11:12 AM

korrson · Answer

@Davet50 wrote:

are you perhps connected to a surge strip???

I believe that there is a Dell FAQ reguarding this issue and it has to do with plugging a system into a power strip.

link

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=7A389493FD3C4A09AECCB0038B0E9E5F&journalid=3EAA05D08A65A791E040A68F27284CCE&Query=c3lzdGVtK2JhdHRlcnkraXMrbG93&SystemID=DIM_PNT_P4_8200&ServiceTag=&contenttype=-1&os=-1&component=-1〈=-1&doclang=en&toggle=false

Message Edited by Davet50 on 11-11-2007 11:12 AM

Wow Davet50 good find!

jago2 · Answer

Yeah it is connected to a surge protector. But I've tried all the recommendations posted by Dell for low voltage warning before I replaced the battery. I've used a different surge protector, plugging the pc directly to the wall, draining the flea power from the desktop. None of them worked. Replacing the battery didn't work too, and now all of a sudden the warning's gone. Who knows what happened.

Bwasaff · Answer

I am a IT Tech for a large newspaper and we have about 90 Dell computers (GX620, 745 and 755) Over the years we have had the same problem with the 'Low Battery Error' , popping up occasionally. I recently got a couple of used GX620’s to replace some others that went bad and both had the same problem with low battery errors on boot up. After replacing both the batteries with no resolution, I tried several of the solutions offered earlier. I was plugged directly into the wall, and after I tried shutting down three times after Post the error cleared itself. I still needed to reset the Date Time and basic configurations.  But now everything is fine.  I even went back to several computers I was having the same problems with and fixed them also.

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Help! System battery voltage is low

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