Battery problems...

So I bought my laptop back in April, and now I have a massive battery problem. My battery life has been chopped from 6 hours to less tha n 2 on a single charge in a matter of a month...



So almost 50% degradation in less than 9 months of ownership? That isn't normal at all! And I don't even excessively drain the battery that much, and I'm ALWAYS on AC power when I game. So what gives?

 

Were you actually getting 6 hours under the normal activity that you still do. Or are you just going off what that said at one time and says now. The battery life monitor your using like most gauge battery life off the average discharge rate and remaining charge.

If your looking for a loss of something check the design capacity versus the current maximum capacity. Though it would have varied even the day you got it. Thats how you determine wear level.

Back on the subject of "Life" that number should vary with discharge rate. In a different power profile or plan like windows can be in, the number will change too as the discharge rate will tend to be lower with lower screen brightness and processor usage.

EDIT: Note my failure to see the wear indicator in the screen shot.... lol

 

Yes I was actually getting 6 hours doing the normal things that I was doing (i.e. Internet, word-processing, music). Problem is that now I can litteraly see the battery bar drop by a percent or so with each passing minute. And this is observing BOTH battery indicators taht I have...

 

Oh and i didnt notice the battery wear indicator at 43.9% OMG.

With proper care thats a pretty bad drop. I had a laptop around that wear level after maybe 2 years. Mind you people go through batteries every 1 to 3 years depending.

Unless it "fails" under warranty i don't see what can be done about it.

 

Wear went up to 49.7% in less than 24 hours...

 

try letting the battery die completely then charge it completely before using it. after that see what the wear is/

IS the Graphic mode option in the BIOS turned to switchable ? maybe the graphics are sucking up all the battery instead of alternating

 

download Everest, hwinfo32 and compare - battery wear indicators are not exact and can produce different results depending on what you are using to read the data from the batt.

 

Checked Everest too, and along with Battery Bar, I'm seeing 61% wear. Windows states that I should consider replacing the battery.

Should the battery be wearing out this fast?? At 9 months, I'd literally have to charge and discharge the laptop 2x a day, for every day of ownership to get this kind of wear. Maybe I got a defective battery???

 

Something sounds wrong with your batt. I think I might be inclined to call Dell and just ask to have your battery replaced under warranty. Some manufacturers will just run a simple diagnostic to determine where your battery is performing relative to where a battery at that age is supposed to be and they just might say sure we'll send one out. Never hurts to ask.