M17x r2 low battery capacity

Hi all

Tried searching for this with no luck.

I've got a 2 month old m17x r2 with a 85Wh battery. In HWinfo32 it says that the battery fully charged only holds 61.750Wh....

Anybody else who have seen this? Or do your battery show the exact amount of Watthours in HWinfo 32?

Thanks in advance.

/Ole

 

These are my readings from HWiNFO32:


31.01.2011,18:01:06,"Battery","Battery Voltage",12.504 V
31.01.2011,18:01:06,"Battery","Current Capacity",61.750 Wh
31.01.2011,18:01:06,"Battery","Current Capacity",100.000 %



Could someone pls. post their readings from HWiNFO32 on their M17x R2 with the 85Wh battery? Would appreciate any help, don't want to call Dell support if there is no problem....

Regards, Ole

 

my battery report below.

what is the wear level on your battery? 29%

dell gives a 1 year warranty on the battery....

>>>
Battery #0 ----------------------------------------------------------------

[General Properties]
Device Name: W851DILD
Manufacturer Name: DELL
Serial Number: 11100xxxx
Unique ID: 11100xxxx
Chemistry:
Designed Capacity: 86580 mWh
Full Charged Capacity: 75202 mWh
Wear Level: 13.1 %

[Current Power Status]
Power Status: On AC Power
Current Capacity: 75203 mWh (100.0 %)
Current Voltage: 12.872 V
>>>

 

Wear level is 25,3%!!

I'm contacting Dell, this is not ok for a brand new battery...

Thanks for helping out

/Ole

 

Just talked to Dell's support on the phone. After some discussion they accepted there was a problem, the solution they choose is to switch the battery and charger with new ones - and to install a new motherboard!

Hopefully this will help - just hope I won't have to re-install my system......

/Ole

 

Good for you. Although it does slightly concern me that Dell seem to like to swap out a mobo at ANY given opportunity....Im suprised they didnt just say "see how you get ont with the new battery/psu" first before drastic action such as ripping the mobo out for no apparent reason!

 

Exactly what I told the supporter.... the answer was that when they send out a technician its so expensive that its cheaper to switch the motherboard than it is to send him out again. Why a technician have to deliver a battery and powersupply to me in person instead of sending it by mail/delivery there was no answer to...

I'm beginning to understand why Alienware is so expensive.

/Ole

 

he won't just deliver it,he'll be the one to install the parts!
the thing is that what if the "new" parts(charger & MoBo) will create issues and the old ones were good cross your fingers

 

Thats madness - when I called AW support regarding my "not charging" messages, I just asked them for a non-Flextronics psu (Delta psu to be specific) and all they did was send me one via courier the next day. Guy turned up, took the old one, left me the new one and that was that!......mind you , it was one heck of a tricky job installing it into my wall socket and rear of my laptop

 

lucky you. go watch the disassemble videos on youtube (link in the owner's lounge thread, part 3, post#1) to make sure the tech is cluefull.

or you could just install the battery and the power adapter (make sure it's a 240W one) and see how the battery charges. have the tech call you the next day to see if you need to swap the MB - depending on his/her schedule he/she may prefer this....

 

Yeah, I would kind of want to hold off an a MB replacement just cos of the battery wear.....right now anyway. If it persists on the next battery/psu, thats when I would be letting them swap out the mobo....Not wanting to discredit tech visits, but if it can be avoided, why replace the mobo on something that MAY be fixed without the need to perform open heart surgery on your lappy?

Good luck anyhow!

 

I'd definitely hold off on the mobo replacement. That's madness they'd want to replace it just because...

The battery and AC is hardly a hassle to switch out by the user so I'm not sure why they can't just send it to you overnight.

I changed both my GPUs and DVD for Blu Ray by myself and Dell was the one that recommended that I do (since I'm too busy for a tech).

 

Nice suggestion beelsr, I'll try that.

steviejones133, I know what you mean - I'm always in doubt when I connect my psu, its so confusing. They should put a sign on saying: "This end goes into wall socket" .

/Ole

 

Had the battery and PSU switched today - now at 4,3% battery wear - Tank you Dell

The PSU was switched from a Flextronics to a Delta - is that good or bad? Read somewhere that the Flextronics where'nt so good, but the Delta? Only time will tell

 

I have a FLEXTRONICS since day one - NEVER had a issue with it.
If you're battery is not new call them again.

 

I think its good you have a Delta. Appreciate what Katalin has said as he has never had a problem with his Flextronics psu.

I can only go from personal experience. I had 3 systems within 6 months - each came with Flextronics psu and every one had the same "not charging" or "not plugged in" error messages.

As soon as I got Dell/AW Tech to send me out a Delta psu (found out about them via NBR - thanks NBR! lol), connected it to a system that WAS having these problems, bingo....no more problems.

Draw from it what you will, but I can only comment that Flextronics psu was the source of the problems (for me, anyhow) and that replacing with a Delta cured my issues.

So, In retrospect, I think you are better off having a Delta - Havent heard of anyone complain with them but HAVE heard lots of Flextronics complaints!

PS Did they swap out you mobo or what? - that was a crazy idea to do right away!

 

Didn't switch the mobo after my recommendations - just hope it won't bother them if the problem persist. However, with the new PSU and battery I'm quite confident that the problem is solved . Will keep an eye on the "wear" indication of the battery though..... Any ideas of what to expect? In my work we use some Li-Ion battery packs, on these we say that wear is about 6% per year - that is 6% of the actual charged level of the battery, meaning that a fully charged batttery drops 6% a year, a stored battery with ie 10% charge drops 0.6% a year (I'm actually getting approx. 20% drop in 2½ years, but still acceptable) - could this be transferred directly to laptop batterypacks?

 

I suppose it depends greatly on how much you "use" battery power. If you run on battery alot and are constantly charging/discharging, your obvioulsy gonna have a shortened battery life.

Personally, Im hooked up to the juice most (99%) of the time. I keep the battery in, if its fully charged, I just use Fn&F2 to disable it (stops it trying to accept a charge) and every now an then, I will unplug/switch off the mains and deplete the battery to as low as it will go (7% atm,can be set to go lower though) then, I will charge it up again....I repeat this every few weeks on average - just to ensure the battery is getting some kind of work out.

My Hwinfo32 shows my wear to be 2% after about 6 months of this kind of use....I guess its about what should be expected for my kind of useage.

Going by those kind of figures, Id be quite happy if my battery lasted 5yrs+ (as it should) because, chances are I would change laptop before the battery gets FUBAR'd......

 

fwiw... i have 2 flextronics & 1 delta charger. they are all 240W and all work fine. i did have the non-charging problem when i first got mine but the cmos battery trick fixed it.

my usage is like steviejones133's - plugged in almost all the time. but i haven't done the Fn-F2 or but the AC tricks. 13% wear at 10 months is a bit more wear than his but then, I don't know what I started out with either....