Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

no, i tried emailing them a few times but nothing. ill chat or call them tomorrow if i have time since they wont answer my emails. FWIW, i think i get those lines on my webcam because it seems like it tries to adapt to light or something.

 

a couple questions. i tried calibrating my battery last night per the battery guide, and i let it reach 0%. well, today, unless i just havent been paying attention to my icons, something weird is happening.

the battery charging icon was blinking instead of being solid, and after it charged fully, which was weird in itself (it went normally, then at like 95-99%, and ESPECIALLY 99%, it took for friggin ever), its still not solid.

i could swear it used to just stay solid until charged, and then remain solid. also, i feel like today im noticing that the blue LED from the wifi icon is bleeding over into the battery charging icon. im probably looking into things too much.

any ideas? its safe to say i wont be calibrating again (unless this is was calibrating does, and thats why it took longer).

 

Oddly enough, I thought that was the correct method of doing it. However, my battery initially had a 1.6% wear rating from BatteryMeter. I left it on to drain out, however after reaching the point where is auto shuts off, the battery wear actually got worse, increasing to 6.7%!!!

What the heck!? So apparently, I think that's the wrong way to do it for this type of battery. From what I read, letting it % fall to 80%, then charging it is the best way to optimize. Luckily as well, it didn't affect my runtime too badly.

 

That's normal operation. It's to protect the Lithium battery. I guess Dell was tiered of exploding batteries, and now takes really no chances. Not that it was the cause at all.. but Dell doesn't this to occur because of their fault.

Lithium battery SHOULD NEVER NEVER NEVER be emptied out at 0%!
Every electronic device that has a lithium ion battery says this on their manual.
Doing so ages the battery extremely fast, as you saw Theros123 and can even brake it from recharging at all, or give you as much battery life as before.
You guys confuse NIMH batteries and Lithium ion batteries... not the same thing.

 

Thanks ssskom and GoodBytes for your answers!

 

how can you check if there is any loss? i used RM clock, and it shows no charge loss. i only did it because that whole thread was vague, and people keep going back and forth about draining it to 0 or not. rest assured i wont anymore though

any info about your icons though? does it blink when charging for everyone? Then does it turn off? i could swear that it was blue the entire time but i guess im nuts.

Edit: i have no idea whats going on with my battery now. it shows that it is at 96.4% when unplugged, but when i plug it in it shows that it is 100%. the odd thing is that the correct charge capacity is being shown when it is at 100% and when it is at 96.4%.

what the heck is going on??!

 

You have battery wear? I use a program called BatteryBar to keep track of my wear on the battery.

 

I swear, your luck with laptops is about like my track record with cars! First the Toshiba E105 with the fan from Hell and now, even with the far superior E6400, you're having these odd issues...sorry to hear it. Especially since (I seem to recall) it was me who recommended the E6400 to you! Hopefully these are just minor issues that can be ironed out soon.

Try using the Support Chat function, I always use it rather than calling. That way you have a transcript of the entire conversation! If you don't get resolution there, here's the "Unresolved Issue' link to escalate the matter- LINK.

If it makes you feel better, as I mentioned earlier, I have crappy luck in general. Even more so when it's a major purchase, like a car! I'm the only person I've ever known who has purchased two Consumer Reports 'Best Buys' and 'Most Reliable' rated cars, only to have horrible problems. I am the only person in Georgia, to date, that has succeeded in having Honda buy back an Accord under the Lemon Law! (that was in '98)...but I'm not kidding! You'd never know I was 1/2 Irish by my luck!

 

Haha, dont worry about it! Even with the the issues, its still an amazing laptop, and thanks!

Ill eventually get through to them. ive used the chat feature and like it too. allfiredup, my keyboard is gradually getting dimmer too!! Is your new one any good?

Can anyone confirm that their icons blink when charging, and then turn off when fully charged? or does anyone know where i can see icon behavior? i cant find it in the service manual which is where the online manual says it is.

batterybar shows the same thing...no wear at all, but when plugged in it is 100% and when not plugged in ~96%. i think by trying to calibrate the battery i UNcalibrated it. Great.

 

Lithium batteries contain electronics when shut the battery down before it is genuinely empty. The challenge is to get this built-in controller to know the right point to shut down. I have, with other batteries, done a couple of deep discharges to successfully reduce the reported wear.

RMClock reports my E6400's battery as, when fully charged and plugged in to the mains, remaining capacity 57720 mWh (106.4%) and the fully charged capacity as 54246 mWh. However, about 1/2 minute after pulling out the mains plug the remaining capacity suddenly drops to 53979 mWh. And the blue charge light flashes while the battery is charging. The charge rate reduces substantially as the battery approaches full.

John