m1530 Battery level from 1 hr -> 0:07 instantly?

Ok so recently I started having battery issues on my m1530. I have the 9 cell, and it always worked fine and gave me 3-4 hours of time. Now, though, it displays 3 hours, then drops slowly and accurately with time, until it gets to about 1 hr. At the 1 hr mark or so, it will instantly fall to 5% remaining (about 7 mins) and then turn off after that 7 minutes.

What is going on here?

Also, I have been having issues with the charging as well, where it will get to "plugged in, not charging" and just sit at a certain %charge. I am away from home at a temp housing this month, so I don't know if it is just the outlets here, but sometimes it will charge all the way up and others it will just give me power and no charge. Any ideas?

 

BatteryBar. Get it.

 

I assume that the battery is over a year old.. In such a case, it's probably normal wear.. Dell's 9 cell batteries tend to give out right after a year.. and lose capacity very fast after that.. Try pressing and holding the charge level button found on the underside of the battery.. Each lit segment denotes around 12% wear from the original capacity..

 

oh dang, it has 3 lit segments

And my computer still wont charge it was plugged in and off all night and it is still at 10%...

 

It could be a problem with the adapter, the motherboard, or the battery itself.. If you are still in the warranty period, give Dell a call..

 

Maybe re-calibrating it would help. Also, I recommend purchasing a 6-cell for your next battery if you choose to buy another. I don't know if I can conclude this, but I've definitely heard more problems with 9-cells on the XPS m1530, and lesser problems with 6-cell.

 

re-calibrating? What do you mean?

and it's still not charging ugh i calling dell tomorrow.

 

Recalibrating a battery is draining it until the laptop dies (literally, so turn off the critical battery level action) and then full charge, then using it normally.

I had a Toshiba from 2 years ago that had the same issue with the battery last year and i had to buy a new battery. I got a very good 1 for $150 off eBay.

 

Fred pretty much explained battery recalibration, so just follow what he said.

Just some extra tips in case you haven't recalibrated it yet. First, make sure you are not running any programs or savable files at the point of battery drain (shutdown). It could cause some issues the next time you start up as windows will most likely save your session temporarily using some memory.

Also, when you do a full charge, don't charge while the notebook is turned on. Charge it full lid closed, fully shutdown.

In case you haven't gotten Ole Man's suggestion, BatteryBar; I also suggest you download it as it helps you specifically identify certain statistics of your battery, including its wear level. Other programs that monitor your PC also provide this feature (HWmonitor, SIW, etc.), but if you want a program specifically for monitoring your battery, BatteryBar works great.

You can get BatteryBar here.