New Dell XPS 15 9550 Battery Installation Help

I bought a new dell xps 9550 battery and am pretty sure I put in the screws and everything else correctly.


It at the moment, did not have any battery because I had it removed at a computer repair shop not long ago due to it being swollen. That was the smaller 56wh battery but i got the bigger battery.


After I put the new battery in and put in the screws, I connected the ac charger to it as I recall before you turn on the laptop with new battery, you need to connect it ac charger right? Well what i noticed was when i connected ac charger to it... the bottom of my laptop under the trackpad was flashing white and orange. Is that normal? When I saw this for a few seconds, I unplugged the ac charger. I also did not power on my laptop yet.


Is that a concern i saw flashes of white and orange when charging it? I dont think i ever seen that before when charging my laptop when it had a battery? Then again, I don't think i look under the trackpad when it charges.


So could i just power it on with the ac charger and see what happens? Laptop is bought from parts people so its a legit geniune battery and im pretty certain i installed the battery correctly.

 

Search the forums for what the different flashing colours mean.

 

Okay so i connected my ac charger to it again... and i noticed it flashed orange light four times... then white once... then flashed orange four times... then white once ... repeatedly.



Again I did this without powering on my laptop with the new battery. I googled this and I read its either a bad battery or its possible it does that if the battery is really low percentage. Now is there any risk if i power it on while ac charged or not?



When i saw those four orange flashes and one white light flash, it didn't seem good. So what should I do now? Should i open up my laptop again to see if its properly plugged in? Im pretty sure i put in the battery correct. I mean there is no risk of turning on the laptop power on while ac charged right?

 

Okay so I decided to open up the laptop inside again and remove the screws of the laptop outside and the screws connecting the new battery and try to realign the battery in case it wasn't connected properly.



Now after I did all this, then screwed everything back to the battery, then closed up my laptop. I then plugged the ac charger to it. It showed a white light only for a second. No orange lights or anything like that.




Then while plugged in... I powered it on... it powered on with no issue... but then it shows no battery is detected though in the bottom right corner. So I assume me moving the battery a bit inside did some change to it since it doesn't show those orange and white flash lights?

 

Okay this is beyond weird.


I shut down my laptop while plugged in of course. I then unplug the ac charger. Then few seconds later power on my laptop without the charger connected to it... and my laptop turns on... how does that even happen when it shows no battery is detected? but the dell logo and then the windows screen shows up but it seems to take a long time to all load.


I then open up chrome and it takes a while and then loads the pages. During this time, it still shows no battery is detected in the bottom right... while its working without plugged in.


Then the moment i plug the ac charger into the laptop, the laptop suddenly powers off?


Then while the ac charger is still connected... i powered it back on and it works. So right now im back to using it plugged in.


Im not even sure if i unplug the charger right now when using it if it will power off immediately or not...



Well right now i just decided to unplug the ac charger while using it and it does automatically shut down.





What should i do now? Do you think the battery is defective or maybe i installed it incorrectly or do you think its something with bios?

 

I think there is a "battery reset" function somewhere in either windows or bios. A good one to ask is @Spartan@HIDevolution. He may know. I think I have read somewhere that using non Dell batteries in some xps machines need this reset. This is way back in my foggy memory so I am not 100 percent sure on that. Mine took the new battery with no issue. So I am guessing this is different for different models of notebooks.

The other thing could be that where your machine had the small battery in it previously, it does not recognize the new one since there is a capacity difference. I am willing to bet if you installed the 56wh battery in it, it would work fine.

 

@Spartan@HIDevolution

 

And you're sure you've got the battery plugged in properly? You can always post pictures if you're unsure. It sounds like a bad battery to me, 3rd party batteries are usually hit or miss (typically miss). The screws into the battery aren't the problem, it's the connection itself. If that's fine then it's either the battery (most likely) or the motherboard (possible as I've had it happen in one of my 9550s).

 

These are the XPS LED blink error codes.

https://www.dell.com/support/articl...he-xps-notebook-diagnostic-indicators?lang=en

 

Well the part where you plug the battery in.. you know those rainbow wires into the slot... i just plugged it in to see if it fits and it fit. That is how you are suppose to do it right? I basically screwed all 7 screws into it... i saw a video where someone said it was exactly 7 screws as well... not counting those two phillips screws in the middle. The thing is in those videos, you see them remove the old battery and they sort of pull that rainbow wire out... then when you put battery in ... you make sure the screws are in... then you take that rainbow wire part and just connect it into the slot and if it feels like it fits... it fits right?


Yea i thought the screws arent the problem. I mean if i forgot to screw two of the 7 screws, that has no issue anyway right?


Well if its the motherboard, what did you do? But if its the motherboard, then the laptop still works with ac charger?

 

I saw that. But i dont see any four orange lights and then one white light. Again... when i saw these lights, i then opened up the laptop and screws and sort of realigned the battery inside. Then when i turned it back on... it didn't had those light issues anymore. But the moment i plug the ac charger into it. it shows a white light under the trackpad for a short second, then no more light. Then when i turn on my laptop now power on while plugged in... laptop turns on but in the bottom right still shows battery not detected.


Also... i earlier powered it on again with no ac charger. It powered on... but the issue was it took a very very long time to get the Dell logo showing... and even a longer time for the my username to show up screen and then go to the desktop screen. Like it was extremely slow the entire time but it worked without ac charger though? Someone on another forum said that is most likely residual battery which is why it works? I had my laptop on for maybe 5 minutes while not plugged but then just powered it off. And right now just plugged the ac charger back to it and powered it on and it works as usual but most importantly, goes to dell logo screen and my username name and then desktop very fast as usual.


So what do you suggest me to do now? Is there some battery diagnositcs thing i could check? Or ppl said check bios? Again... I Never ever updated bios ever on my laptop. This is what it shows.


It shows this in system information


Bios Version/Date Dell Inc. 01.00.01 - 11/2/15
SM Bios Version 2.8


Someone said my bios is actually 2.8 and not the older 01.00.01?

 

The battery isn't a third party battery... its from parts people... the only site that sells legit genuine batteries...

 

...I really hope it is not the battery and it is just the connecter not fully seated (after all of @Drew1 uncertainty in ordering).

 

@Drew1 just read your last post - are you sure the battery isn't "just working" depending on your settings it may be slower in general use (although not during initial boot I would have thought). IOW the white light coming on a and then going off again might simply mean its fully charged? What does you battery icon down by the clock look like?

 

Hi. I can post pictures of my battery inside for you guys to look at to see if that is the case? So from looking at the picture, you could tell if i installed the battery correctly right? Again the only important thing is where i connected the battery to right? Like the rainbow wire it has to the other part?

 

Okay i will summarize this all again real quick. Yesteday, I put in the new battery and screwed everything back in.


I plugged in ac charger to it as i recall you always do that with a new laptop battery before powering it on. Though I read you don't need to since the new battery should have some battery.


I noticed when i plugged the ac charger into it... the part below trackpad was flashing four times orange, then one time white. It kept doing that. I did not power on laptop. I just decided after few seconds, just unplug the ac charger.


I then decided to open laptop up again and try to reallign the battery if i did it wrong.. after i did this... i connected the ac charger to it... it showed a white light for a quick second... then no light at all. No orange or white light. I powered it on with ac charger... it turned on with no issue... but in the bottom right corner... it has icon of no battery is detected.


Now here is the strange part, I then powered if off. I then decided to power it on... with no ac charger... expecting it to not power on with no battery detected. It actually powered on... but issue is it took a very very long time to get to dell logo screen and a very long time to get to my username....then took very long time to get to desktop screen. So that was strange. I read this might be residual battery which is why that happned? Then while using it... it felt very slow. I then plugged ac charger into it... and suddenly laptop powered off? No idea why that happened.


I then powered it on as usual with ac charger... no issue as it turned on and fast like normal. Then i powered off my laptop.

 

delete

 

Today in the morning, first thing I decided to do was power on laptop with no ac charger. It worked like yesterday. But of course it was very slow... take long time to get to dell logo... then my username and took even longer time to get to desktop screen. Then while using it, using chrome etc... it was extremely slow. After few minutes, just powered it off. Then plugged ac charger in... then powered it on... and it turned on and was very fast to get to the dell logo, my username and also... my desktop.


Also i did not mention this but i dont think this maybe an issue. But yesterday before i put in the new battery, i had put in a new tb samsung nvme ssd that i just cloned on the same laptop. I had cloned from an old two.five inch into the new samsung nvme... then when i did this, i removed the old two.five inch ssd from my laptop and right now, only have that tb samsung nvme in... and when i powered on laptop... it turned on with no issue... so cloning went correct. So then okay im going to put in the new battery now. Then this all happened.


Also, when i put in the new battery, i did not have a battery there. Last week, i went to a repair shop and had them remove the battery... it was a smaller battery because it was swelling. I been using the laptop since last week plugged in ac charger without battery the whole time. This battery, is offficial dell as i bought from parts people... but this battery is also the bigger battery... not the smaller one. I had to remove the two.five inch ssd in order to make room to put this one in.



So opinions based on this? I mean me putting in a new nvme ssd in and taking the old two.five inch ssd out has no effect here at all right? Also i had a smaller thirty two gb m.two ssd in it as well that i removed... i put the new samsung nvme in it... that ssd had nothign in there.

 

judging by the code it may be the cmos battery.

 

Okay i took out the battery and try to realign it again. Powered on laptop... and it shows the battery now and a charge. It showed like 6% battery only... and right now charging. There is a white light under the trackpad which i recall shows that color when charging. That means its good right?


I then went to do a battery report and it showed this


DESIGN CAPACITY 83,995 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 79,800 mWh



My battery is 84wh. But why does full charge capacity not match it? I thought it should match?

 

Sounds like its working now - hurrah! The diff your seeing is pretty normal, so don't worry about it.

 

Okay so right now, my battery is flashing orange...


What should I do now?


Do I do a battery test to see? I did this and see in the report, you see suspended a few times in the battery rerport.

 

@Drew1 disconnect/remove the battery, disconnect the power brick, press and hold power button for a minute, reconnect the battery and power brick, see if it solved the issue.

 

Still having issues with it.


Weird thing is it then blinked white once and orange once and kept repeating... i didn't see these flashing blinks of 1 and 1 repeatedly... then it keeps it up and the touchpad doesn't work and I then had to use my wireless mouse and turn off laptop.


Does anyone here have this issue with the orange/white lights on their xps system? Im guessing its same across all xps lines... 9550, 9560, 9570 and 7590 etc? This should not be a bad battery right since the dell power manager shows health as excellent?

 

@Drew1, a post of yours a few weeks ago shows that your BIOS is still on version 1.0.0. I think it's time to update that to the latest version (currently 1.13.1). It's possible the version you are using now isn't quite compatible with the newer/larger battery. Version 1.5.1 added extended battery support, and version 1.12.0 modified the battery algorithm to prolong lifespan and minimize risk of swelling.

 

Hey... I read if you update bios, there is always a chance your system could brick... so you want me to do that?


Earlier I got this message for first time


A non dell battery has been detected. Using an incompatible battery or a third party battery may increase the risk of fire or explosion. Only authentic dell batteries should be used in dell systems

It then keeps flashing orange over and over. I took out the screws and back of laptop, then took battery out and put it back in... then it detected no battery. I then decided to take out the battery and try to plug the ac charger in to see if it had any issues on charger and no battery... tested it for few minutes and seems to operate on ac charger.

Then plugged battery back in. Then plugged in ac charger to it.


Then it few times got the message your battery no longer operates and needs to be replaced few times from the Dell Power Management...

Right now when charging, its flashing orange... so you want me to do the thing you mentioned with pressing the

If i got that message even once, does it mean my battery went bad? Again i had it for few weeks only. I got this message several times when i tried to charge it.


The other thing I'm thinking is... is it possible the rainbow connector is not connected tightly with the connector in the laptop? Remember weeks ago it kept flashing orange and white and then after putting battery in... it was good for like almost two weeks? The thing is when you put that rainbow cable in... there isn't any sort of snap like okay it fits. Its like you are just pushing it it. But are suppose to push it in after you set the battery into place? Or just push it in first straight... then set the battery down? In all those youtube videos of putting the battery in... they don't show you exactly like how it goes in with the rainbow side... so I'm thinking its possible the wires are loose or the adapter has issues?

 

If i connected the battery wrong... you know the part where its like that rainbow wire from the dell battery that connects to the xps laptop part? If you don't connect it correctly, is it possible to get all these error messages such as the



Not official dell battery

It does not recognize the battery



And that other message of



The battery needs to be replaced?





Because when I first tried to install the battery, i kept getting orange and white flashes and after taking it out and putting it back in over and over again, it showed a white light when charging and worked for a bit under two weeks until right now.



So plugging in the battery incorrectly or its loose could cause these three messages? Or it could not?

 

@Drew1 seems like a bad battery to me. It could be some problem with charging circuit on the motherboard as well. You can determine for sure by getting another battery from different source.