600M primary/modular battery 'crossover'

Question

I've got a 600m that's a week old-  I haven't installed much by way of software yet, so it's pretty much in a pristine state right now.  I've got the 'laptop' power management scheme selected, which is supposed to give me warnings at X% of battery life, and then automatically hibernate at Y%.    I haven't been getting warnings-  the machine will simply hibernate after a few hours of use.  I've now discovered that the modular battery will be 100% discharged, while there is still 100% battery life being reported by the primary battery.  I simply remove the modular battery, and get another few hours of battery life.   And once I resume my windows session, this is when I see all the 'you should switch to outlet power immediately' warnings- which were apparently thrown up simultaneously with hibernating.   Is there a way for the laptop to present the batteries to Windows as 'one battery'?  Why doesn't the system automatically start drawing from the primary battery?

hilary15 · Answer

Have you found an answer to your problem?  I have seen exactly the same behavior, and I really need to find a solution!

Sgriff4644 · Answer

I have exactly the same problem.  I was hoping somebody here would know the answer.  I sent an email to Tech Support with the question.  If I live long enough to get an answer, I will post it.

hilary15 · Answer

I spent quite a few email messages with Dell's technical support people about this problem.  I got answers from several people with broken accents who never really quite communicated to me that they understood the problem.  But in the end they convinced me that it could be a hardware problem and that swapping out the motherboard could fix it.  So I sent the laptop back to Dell last Friday.  If I were a betting man, I would say that this was a known problem with the design of the 600m and that the tech support folks just couldn't summon up the energy to find that out.  But maybe Dell will prove me wrong.  I'll let you know!

Sgriff4644 · Answer

You're right.  Statistically, what are the chances that three of us have the same motherboard problem with various vintage computers?  It is software that senses the battery voltage and tells the system to hibernate etc.  You got the old Buffalo shuffle - if you send it back, you won't be able to bother them for a couple of weeks.

Sgriff4644 · Answer

Here's the text from the reply to me:

Thank you for contacting Dell Technical support.

1. I suggest you set the standby option to never. Also attach a known good battery (if available) and verify. Please check for bent or damaged pins in the motherboard slot as well as the battery. Reseat the battery properly and verify the issue.

2. Reset the BIOS defaults. Would you please refer to the links below for me?

http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=1035265

Once you reset the BIOS defaults then try updating the BIOS. Please refer to the link below to update the BIOS:

http://support.dell.com/us/en/kb/document.asp?DN=FA1033387

By the way, I tried the Bios reset and I still get the message about flashing to an earlier BIOS.

styrofoam · Answer

I'm not entirely convinced that it's a Dell hardware issue, is the thing- the BIOS is reporting the right percentages, at least to itself. I think it's the interface between the BIOS and Windows. Whether this has something to do with the "Microsoft Composite battery" device in the device manager under system devices or what, I'm not sure. I don't know of many configurable options for the composite battery, but that seems to be the exact type of thing I'd be trying to deal with. My gut is that it's the way that the BIOS is interfacing with ACPI, or something even 'above' that in Windows, but I don't see any pretty buttons with which to experiment.

(I'm running XP professional, SP2, for what it's worth.)

hilary15 · Answer

I received my laptop back today.  They replaced the system board and updated the BIOS.  I suspect that the 'update' to the BIOS was pointless since I was already running the latest BIOS (version A14).    The good news is that they were very fast in servicing the computer.  The bad news is that they didn't fix the problem, so they just wasted a little time.   I am now going to ask tech support to move my request up to the next highest support level.  Maybe that will get some action.

gwitatude · Answer

You can try but it ain't gonna happen unless you purchase it please contact our customer care or extended warraties dept. M-F.

hilary15 · Answer

Here's an update on my lack of success in dealing with Dell.

I finally got a phone call(!) from a "supervisor" at Dell named Alex. He assured me that Dell would test a system to verify that the problem had been fixed, then ship that system to me. I would then install my hard disk in that system and ship my old laptop back to Dell. My problems would be solved.

I then got an email from Dell saying they would ship me a box that I could use to send my system back to them, where no doubt they would replace my motherboard and call it a "done deal". I didn't think that was the agreement I had with Dell; so I sent another email to them. They assured me that, to quote: "A request has been submitted to ship the necessary replacement system to
you. So as per your request I have set up a system exchange for you to resolve the issue."

Well, the box came in the mail today and it was empty. So now I'm asking them to have a real supervisor respond with an explanation of what it is they plan to do that's different from what they have tried so far.

I figure that Dell is wasting an awful lot of time and money on this problem by refusing to deal with it. But if that's what they want to do, I am willing to play along. Of course, the laptop goes back to Dell eventually and I'll find a better computer that really will run on batteries for a long time.

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600M primary/modular battery 'crossover'

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