Alienware 17 Battery Issues only after 1 1/2 years???

Hello,

In the past I could squeeze out ~ 4 hours battery life under normal use. Now after a year and a half that shrunk down to a scary 1 hour light usage. I had this issues for a few months and it has not changed in any way. My laptops battery is dying faster than expected and for some reason my computer says it's "healthy". In addition the computer alerts that the battery is low when the built in battery meter shows that the battery is only at 30 ~ 50%. I installed a battery meter and after continuously running music from Youtube fora little over an hour the meter spiked from having 0:50 to 0:05 in about 5 mins. Because of this I have not been able to run this computer off charge, mainly because when I get the warning to plug in my computer the system dies in under ~10 seconds (not enough time to plug in.

Here's my main concern: every battery test I run says the battery is healthy, and the Windows battery report shows that my max battery capacity is approx. normal: http://i.gyazo.com/0664a1d637accf6b55667e3cca3d0ca2.png

So here's my question: How do I accurately check to see if my battery is unhealthy/dying and if it's healthy, what could be the problem with it dying so fast?

 

Download Battery bar and you can check how much capacity is left and the wear on the battery...

 

Did you read my post? Because I said all the tests report that my battery is healthy. Battery Bar was the battery meter that I mentioned in the op. It says the battery wear is 0.4%.

 

Umgh, maybe it's some program you have installed? Since it's been over a year might want to do a clean reinstall of windows?

 

Yeah I ultimately decided on this. Hopefully it'll resolve the issue.

 

Same to me 'healthy diagnostic'.. alienware 17 2013 always in protected mode but AC plugged constantly... battery can only load till 61% but drop too fast, max 1h. I will receive my new battery tomorrow.

 

So unfortunately the clean install did not help the battery issue. Now I have to find a way to get a new battery.

 

Any word on battery life? Was the issue resolved with the new battery?

EDIT:

I did another battery drain test and what I was able to capture is my battery not actually dying. Attached are the results of being able to recover my system after the battery drain. With the power unplugged it shows that the battery is at 0%, however once I plug in the charger it shows that the battery is actually at 36.9%. With all the battery tests stating that the battery wear is sub 1% I don't know if the problem with my battery is because of the battery or because of the system hardware.

 

With my new battery, i can reach back 2h30 with half screen and light dim keyboard.

 

i baught my battery to a romanian battery seller, i was sure it will be a fake from china but all package seem to come to a dutch company or idk imported from USA. It's a 2014 october battery. And after 3 full load/discharge, still good. Paid 135euro. if i was in montreal, Dell gave me an offer of 86$ca. You can contact Dell of your town and they can purpose you one.

 

Wow. They told me it would be $160 USD for the battery....

 

Go ahead and send me your Service Tag via PM, I'll see what I can do about it.

 

So I bought this battery:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KIK8HMK/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I did a check and it says there's 2.4% wear compared to the 0.4% on my old one (don't know how accurate that is though). Is this bad or......

EDIT: I just noticed that the listing says 86wh, not 88wh.

Double Edit: now the battery is at 82wh.....