XPS 9550 Battery Upgrade

I have a 9550 that went into service around when it was launched. The original 84Whr battery (Dell Part No. 4GVGH) started to go bad. Mostly noticeable in that the battery cells under the track pad were breaking down somehow and expanding (puffing up) when they got warm when in use. This pushed the track pad up so hard and far that you couldn't click it down anymore when the machine was warmed up. The battery was also running down faster then when new, but didn't think this was more than expected.

Contacted Dell about getting a replacement battery. They flat out said they could not supply a new battery; goodbye. Not planning to ship the laptop to them for who knows what / for how long / for how much. So I went on ebay and picked up a seemingly new 9560 battery - the 97 WHr 6GTPY for $129. Part came, installed it, and no problems at all so far. Computer recognizes the battery, same size as the original. At least I move to a new 97Whr battery for my trouble.

The even more interesting issue is what I found on the motherboard. One of the screws holding the heatsink into the motherboard had pulled through its mount. This looks like it could impact the ability of the heatsink to maintain full pressure on the CPU or GPU that's under it. I assume this is possible to fix with a replacement screw that goes through to the other side and then has a small nut and a rubber grommet. (Assuming a solution without soldering. If anyone has other ideas on how to fix, would be interested to hear. Anyone know if this side is for the GPU or CPU?

 

Either a motherboard swap by dell or the ghetto fix you suggest with a small screw and nut.
use threadlock
Last thing you want is the nut bouncing around in a few months.

 

The same thing with the battery and touchpad happened to me. I was lucky that I had the MS store plan and they replaced the laptop with a new 9560.

I am curious, is your touchpad ok now that the battery is replaced?

 

Everyone who had a new battery reported it works fine after.

 

Nice - new 9560 for your trouble. You purchased some kind of extended warranty from the MS store?
As for the touchpad, yes is perfectly back to normal with the new 9560 battery.

 

Yes, I had the MS complete care plan. Apparently MS is very liberal about things like that. I don't know about yours, my trackpad was pushed out almost 1/4 inch.

 

I just bought the 97 whr battery for my precision 5510 directly from dell, for $125 + taxes, will give an update after it arrives, got 90 day warranty from dell as well, TIP: Just ask the chat representative for the part and not give the service tag. They don't have 6gtpy in stock, they gave me a refurbished 6c battery GPM03. the 84 whr refurbished is available for $104