Battery life suddenly went from great.. to terrible over a reinstall.

Question

Hey guys,   About 2 months ago I did a reinstall of windows XP (a NON-DELL) version, because I couldn't find the CD.   My battery life is now about 2 hours, from 3.5 hours.   When I unplug the AC Adapter 3 hours and 34 minutes comes up, then it plummets to around two hours.   This leaves me quite confused, my screen brightness is all the way down, and my video card is set to optimal battery life with the new omega drivers.   So I'm pretty confused.

ejn63 · Answer

Did you install the notebook system software? What model is this? And how old is the system/battery?

rbsx · Answer

it's an inspiron 8600, and I updated everything listed on dell's site.   I can only remember that there were a few things I couldn't install because I wasn't using the dell branded OS.

ejn63 · Answer

There is no Dell OS. The XP CD is standard.

You should have:

Installed Service Pack 2,

Installed the chipset software,

Installed the notebook system software.

An 8600 is a couple of years old, and since the life of a lithium battery is about 300-500 charge cycles or 18-24 months, you may simply be seeing the result of battery deterioration due to age and use. Batteries are consumable parts, like printer toner cartridges; they do deteriorate with time and need replacement.

ejn63 · Answer

It can be sudden - the cells do lose capacity. I would say your battery is due for replacement anyway - if the replacement suffers the same problem, you may have a hardware issue.

rbsx · Answer

Maybe, but like I said, it was very sudden, not gradual like most degradation is.   As well, the sudden battery life change after unplugging the AC is indicative of power drain, not a capacity problem.   I'll reinstall the software later, I was just curious because I'm on Vacation and doing alot of flying.

rbsx · Answer

OK.   Well I'm thinking about getting a battery for the DVD bay, but that all depends on the capacity of the secondary battery, anyone knows how long the secondary batteries last for?

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