Dell battery holds for 18mins, 1 years old.

Wow.
My Dell Inspiron 6400 battery now holds up for 18mins with the lowest brightness when it's loaded at 100%. I've went two AC adapter so far and now the battery is dead. I'm starting to believe that Dell stuff is cheap gear... Will not buy a dell as my next notebook. It works nicely for the first year after that it just falls apart... Now i have to buy another battery.

 

Ummm you could have exchanged that for a brand new battery within the first year for free. How did you make out with that?

 

I bought a Dell refurb, and it's battery gave out in under six months, but it only had a 90 day warranty, so...

 

FYI, you may want to look at the battery guide when you get a new notebook/battery. It has great information and it has tips on how to prolong the battery life.

 

Batteries don't have an infinite lifespan. How often you charge / discharge your battery will impact it's life. If you run your laptop on battery power daily then 1yr is not all that unusual (I would expect 1.5 to 2 years).

 

The laptop runs on the battery on daily basis but ONLY when it's in sleep mode in my school backpack! Whenever i'm in class I plug it in the walll.... I'm gonna buy a 9 cell from ebay and hope for the best...

 

if i have a two year warranty on my laptop dell will replace the battery free of charge? even though it would be considered an accessory?

 

Oh...I wanted to buy a 9 cell from eBay as well but am unsure of the quality of the batt. Update me when you get your battery...

 

Got a 9 cell and so far so good! With brightness at the lowest the battery holds up for 5 hours At the highest, it's in the 3hrs range... What a difference.

 

The battery warranty is one year max unless the warranty is less than one year.

 

Youre not suppose to always plug it in, you have to let the battery drain, and the best time to recharge is when it has 10-15% left, that way the battery lasts longer..

 

are you sure about that? why not leave it on charge when using it?

 

That used to be true with old Nickel batteries, not so with Lithium ones. You can charge at any time and it will be the same.

The only thing that should be done is to leave the battery at about mid charge when it is going to be stored for a long period of time, thus preserving its life.

 

6+9 Cell FTW

 

That's for old batteries. Batteries these days are much more advanced and include circuitry to maintain them for a long time. There aren't any charge memory or over charge problems.

 

I read that guide a few days ago; I hadn't known it existed until you posted the link. Unfortunately, I find I had broken a few rules in it -- including having purchased an extra battery that I haven't been using, d'oh! Oh, well, that battery will basically be written off, since it will degrade more or less as quickly as my current one (I suppose there's a clever way to alternate their useage in order to maximize the length of both, but I have neither the time nor interest in constantly swapping them out).

So here's the big question: I had been using my laptop constantly plugged in, which the guide says is a no-no in terms of battery life. When I read that, I started cycling the battery by using it unplugged and letting it drain down and then plugging it in to recharge. However, I use my laptop for like four hours or more at a time and I will often go through at least two charge-and-drain cycles every day. Is this normal wear and tear on the battery? And if it will only go for 300 cycles on average, is this to say that the battery will only last maybe three months? Or am I doing this all wrong?