Recommendation on battery replacement for E6400?

My 6 cell barely gives me 1 and half hours now after only one year of use.

Any idea on what a good replacement is and is there anything I need to be looking for in a 6 or 9 cell from a non-OEM?

 

Don't buy non-OEM. You will have to deal with extremely poor customer service, possibly an exploding battery.

Generic batteries are as they sound. They have no consistency on quality, are almost never lab tested despite their labels, and possibly could be dangerous. Buy Dell OEM because if you have problems you can call up Dell vs dealing with a Chinese Ebay reseller.

 

I bought a "Genuine Dell Latitude E6400/E6500 6 cell battery NEW!" off ebay for $64 (included $5 shipping) in Jan 2010. So far it has outlasted the 12/08 factory 6-cell. Find a genuine Dell battery from a seller with a good rep and roll the dice.

GK

 

Just found some genuine Dell batteries on Ebay; thanks.

Any advice on how to get a battery to last longer?

 

Turn off express charge in the BIOS. Allow for deeper discharges (less charge cycles in time) by not being so quick to plug in. But still, it's a chemistry experiment.

GK

 

What exactly is "Express Charge"?

I use my Latitude docked, 80% of the time where it is constantly charging/plugged in.

Maybe thats whats killing my battery?

 

Express Charge allows a much higher charging rate (at the cost of more heat and faster battery degradation) but is useful for people who only have intermittent access to charging points (eg air travellers trying to fill their battery before the next leg of their flight).

It should not hurt your battery being continuously plugged in. It will only receive top-up charges every few days when the charge level has dropped by several percent. However, if you do buy a new battery then I suggest that you still use the old battery when you are in home/office and keep the new one for when you are going out.

Actual battery life is variable although my E6400's battery was still at over 85% capacity when I sold the computer after 2 years. Have you tried a full discharge so that the battery can recalibrate itself?

John

 

What John said. And his suggestion to use the old battery as a dummy while docked is interesting... would certainly keep the new battery offline. Do beware using an old battery that is no longer serviceable as this may not be safe... chemistry experiments can become a mess.

The suggestion to stretch out the number of charging cycles is based on the fact that battery life is rated by the number of charging cycles. Less cycles should mean longer service life. When docked, I assume the battery is topped off once while using line power... so staying docked doesn't increase the number of charging cycles past one. And topping off every 5% discharge may not be the same wear as topping off every 45% discharge.

Also, an initial calibration when you first get your battery may be advisable so that the system is charging your battery 'knowingly'... may have a positive affect on battery life.

GK

 

Here's something to try with your old battery: completely drain it until the laptop shuts off on its own, and stick the battery in the freezer for 2-3 days. Then, let it defrost, fully charge it, and drain it again until the laptop turns off. Repeat again.

I have several 9-cell batteries but only one 6-cell, so when the 6-cell started to jump from 30% to 0% in one minute (and wear level was about 35%), I tried to recondition it. The battery (just over two years old) now shows a wear level of 3% and operates like new.