C840 Laptop Upgraded BIOS from A12 to A13 now battery does not charge

Question

I charged my battery to 100% in A12 Bios.  I immedately updated to A13 Bios and now the battery is showing 0% charged.  It says it is charging but has remained at 0% for several hours.  The far right indicator light is now flashing amber then green then amber.... Is this a problem with the A13 Bios.  I have seen this on several C840 laptops now.   Dell support told me that A13 Bios is not compatible with my battery and they told me I need to step back to A12.  When I went to the link that they provided and ran the file, I got a message  'Your current BIOS version is the same or newer than this version.  Your BIOS will not be updated'.  When I contacted them back thwy told me 'there's not a whole lot we can do, if the file won't run. The only thing I can suggest is seing if you can get a file that will run the flash pre-boot, but we can't assist with that and Dell doesn't make that file pre-boot.'  Does anyone out their know where I can get a Pre-Boot A12 BIOS?  Dell says that they do not have one.  HELP!!!!!   This is not a single occurrence.  I purchased 30 C840 and 8 of them have the same problem.  I am EXTREMELY mad at Dell.  They should have a warning on there BIOS update.  They where again unhelpful and it is up to the individual to find a resolution to their products.     hazelcpa Message Edited by HAZELCPA on 10-16-2008 08:11 PM

Balaji Ramanath · Answer

Was there a reason to upgrade to A13 BIOS?  If there is nothing wrong with the computer that the BIOS update promises to fix, I would never update the BIOS just for the sake of doing it.  In any case, is there a different battery type that is supposed to be compatible with A13?  If there is, you might need to replace the battery in these 8 computers with the new type.

HAZELCPA · Answer

We upgraded these computers with DVD-RWs and were told to upgrade the BIOS because A12 BIOS did not report the optical drive.  The update did solve this problem.  The battery that I had in the computer was an 'Dell' 66WHr battery.  I did have a battery that we purchased on eBay and was a 'Dell 66WHr Replacement' battery.  When we put this one in the BIOS reports the battery.  So unless I can find out how to get the BIOS back to A12, I will have to purchase new batteries for every laptop with this problem.  This is expensive.

Balaji Ramanath · Answer

That is certainly a painful position to be in.  Does the battery not charge at all or is it being reported as 0% but is actually charged?  If the latter, you may be able to live with it (though of course, it might be a problem not knowing exactly how much battery power you have left).

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