Laptop battery dying?

[Stan Brown]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1764 laptop, purchased summer 2010, running
Windows Home Premium. Usually it gives a warning when the battery is
at 10%, and another when it's at 7%. But twice today it has just
shut off with no warning, and when I plug it in and boot it up, it
says the battery is at 1%. The battery does charge to 100%.

Yes, I checked my power options, and they haven't changed.

Some Web searching suggests that a battery behaves like this when
it's near the end of its life. I don't have a lot of trouble
believing that, since Dell's spec sheet says the battery is good for
only a shockingly low 300 charge cycles, but before I pony up for a
new battery I wanted to ask if there's anything else I should check.

And assuming I do need a new battery, does anyone have any
suggestions where to buy one? This one from Amazon looks too good to
be true (sop it probably is):

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Inspiron-17-1764-Replacement-451-
11467/dp/B0053A2UP0

Actually I very seldom need to run on battery power -- almost always
I'm near an electrical outlet. Is there any harm if I just run on
house current all the time? Unfortunately if I remove the battery
the laptop isn't physically stable, s I'd still be running current
through the battery.

 

[Good Guy]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1764 laptop, purchased summer 2010, running
Windows Home Premium. Usually it gives a warning when the battery is
at 10%, and another when it's at 7%. But twice today it has just
shut off with no warning, and when I plug it in and boot it up, it
says the battery is at 1%. The battery does charge to 100%.

Yes, I checked my power options, and they haven't changed.

Some Web searching suggests that a battery behaves like this when
it's near the end of its life. I don't have a lot of trouble
believing that, since Dell's spec sheet says the battery is good for
only a shockingly low 300 charge cycles, but before I pony up for a
new battery I wanted to ask if there's anything else I should check.

And assuming I do need a new battery, does anyone have any
suggestions where to buy one? This one from Amazon looks too good to
be true (sop it probably is):

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Inspiron-17-1764-Replacement-451-
11467/dp/B0053A2UP0

Actually I very seldom need to run on battery power -- almost always
I'm near an electrical outlet. Is there any harm if I just run on
house current all the time? Unfortunately if I remove the battery
the laptop isn't physically stable, s I'd still be running current
through the battery.

What I did once was to remove the battery from the laptop for about 5
minutes and then put it back and recharged it to 100% within 2 hours.

Worth a try. Make sure the laptop is not plugged in when you remove the
battery. The idea is to cut off all power supply to the laptop (except,
of course, that small battery CS2032).

Good luck.


--
Good Guy
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[charlie]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1764 laptop, purchased summer 2010, running
Windows Home Premium. Usually it gives a warning when the battery is
at 10%, and another when it's at 7%. But twice today it has just
shut off with no warning, and when I plug it in and boot it up, it
says the battery is at 1%. The battery does charge to 100%.

Yes, I checked my power options, and they haven't changed.

Some Web searching suggests that a battery behaves like this when
it's near the end of its life. I don't have a lot of trouble
believing that, since Dell's spec sheet says the battery is good for
only a shockingly low 300 charge cycles, but before I pony up for a
new battery I wanted to ask if there's anything else I should check.

And assuming I do need a new battery, does anyone have any
suggestions where to buy one? This one from Amazon looks too good to
be true (sop it probably is):

http://www.amazon.com/Battery-Inspiron-17-1764-Replacement-451-
11467/dp/B0053A2UP0

Actually I very seldom need to run on battery power -- almost always
I'm near an electrical outlet. Is there any harm if I just run on
house current all the time? Unfortunately if I remove the battery
the laptop isn't physically stable, s I'd still be running current
through the battery.

You can try suggestions others have made, which may or may not help.
Then when you've convinced yourself that the battery is really bad,
replace it. I lucked out on a couple of my laptops, in that the
batteries were recalled, so I ended up getting more or less free
replacements.

Unless the battery cells are "top of the line" cells, (Laptop Mfrs
generally don't use them, due to cost) You can expect to replace the
battery somewhere around the two year point.
There seems to be a trade off between higher capacity and shorter life,
as well as a how used factor that comes into play.

To add further insult, most of the current laptop battery crop has a
built in monitoring circuit that can prevent recovery of individual
cells, along with individual cell replacement. Seems that the monitoring
circuit has a memory built in that can be difficult or impossible to
fully reset when all the cells are good. The last Dell battery we tried
to recover had four good cells and two bad ones.
Removal of residual voltage by removing the bad cells caused the monitor
to trip itself, preventing re use with replacement cells.

 

[Andy Burns]

I very seldom need to run on battery power -- almost always
I'm near an electrical outlet. Is there any harm if I just run on
house current all the time?

Yes, if you're constantly topping the battery up to 100% that shortens
it's life too (whether as badly as constantly letting it charge to 100%
then discharge to <10% I don't know).

My Lenovo has a noption in power management to let it charge to 50% only
and hold it there, this is claimed to maximize battery life (though
obviously you have to remember to charge it to 100% in advance if you
want the maximum battery power at any one time).

I don't think any Dells I've used have a similar option, but that might
be because I remove as much of their bloatware as possible ...

 

[charlie]

Yes, if you're constantly topping the battery up to 100% that shortens
it's life too (whether as badly as constantly letting it charge to 100%
then discharge to <10% I don't know).

My Lenovo has a noption in power management to let it charge to 50% only
and hold it there, this is claimed to maximize battery life (though
obviously you have to remember to charge it to 100% in advance if you
want the maximum battery power at any one time).

I don't think any Dells I've used have a similar option, but that might
be because I remove as much of their bloatware as possible ...

The Lenovo feature is a good one, in that LiPo batteries should be
"stored" at that charge level. It will likely allow the batteries to
last twice as long as they otherwise would.

As a hobby, I fly electric radio controlled model planes. They use Lipo
batteries that have a 3 to 4 Ampere Hour, 3 to 6 cell Lipo battery.
These batteries have a maximum output current that is about 25 to 40
times the AH rating. If everything goes correctly, one to two years is
considered normal life. If not, one or two charge/discharge cycles can
kill them. The model plane motors can, for short times, draw a thousand
watts or more, usually during takeoff or 'stunts".

Sadly, these batteries coast about as much or sometimes more than laptop
batteries. Discharge them below about 3.2 volts per cell, and expect
damage to the storage capability, or even total failure. Under no
circumstances, attempt to charge them above 4.2 volts per cell. They
might catch on fire rather violently, and the fumes are poisonous. High
discharge rates will also shorten life, and are generally limited to 15
to twenty seconds maximum.

 

[Joe Morris]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1764 laptop, purchased summer 2010, running
Windows Home Premium. Usually it gives a warning when the battery is
at 10%, and another when it's at 7%. But twice today it has just
shut off with no warning, and when I plug it in and boot it up, it
says the battery is at 1%. The battery does charge to 100%.

It's possible that you've got a bad cell which could result in a very steep
dropoff of voltage between two strobe points for the battery status tool,
too quickly for the system to raise a warning. (I don't know what interval
your battery monitoring program uses between strobes; a guess might be 5-10
minutes.)

Joe

 

[Stan Brown]

Thanks to the folks who responded, even though no one answered the
question uppermost in my mind: what's a good source of batteries.
Such is Usenet.

 

[Char Jackson]

Thanks to the folks who responded, even though no one answered the
question uppermost in my mind: what's a good source of batteries.
Such is Usenet.

I would suggest BatteriesPlus, Amazon, and Ebay, for starters.