inspiron e1405 battery problem - battery losing charge quickly

Hello all,
I purchased the inspiron E1405 in may this year. It is a good product and everything runs fine. But of late I have been having this serious battery issue. (std. 6pk cell, make Korea). ( I bought the laptop with the default 1 yr limited warranty support).

Initially the battery would last about 3.5 hours under normal operation. Nowadays, I have observed the bottom surface of the laptop is getting unusually hot (it burns if you keep your palm there long enough). The fan utility reports temperatures of around 60 deg C.

Well now the battery life has become only about 30mins to 1hour (in just 6 months!). And today the dell battery meter put up a popup warning saying "battery is out of usable life and should be replaced"

Since it is under warranty, I called up dell ,talked to their CSR, they ran a remote test and everything, clean vents etc etc. Fan is working perfectly. Finally he said they can ship me a replacement battery (which would either be new - but most likely a refurbished one)

So my question is: Has anyone faced a similar problem with the E1405 after a few months? (My battery is NOT in the list of dell battery recall items)

And is this heating up issue common with the Dell inspirons? (esp E1405/1505?)

and should I accept this 'refurbished' battery? My experience with refurbished cell phones has been really bad, so I am inclined not to accept refurbished items (esp. since battery is a serious issue) - but looks like I dont have a choice here. They say in their policy that they are not forced to give out a new battery even under warranty. Is that so?

Thanks,
Sujay

 

First question that comes to mind is how do you use your battery. Do you use your laptop plugged in or with the battery? If you're using your battery and constantly draining it down and with heavy usage then it's possible to fully "use" up the battery after 3-500 charges. 6 months is a short time but it goes back to how you use your laptop. If it's plugged in most of the time then it could be a battery problem

 

Also, have you been calibrating your battery at all? Doing a little bit of care and maintenance can help to extend the lifespan of your Li-Ion battery.

Read through the battery guide for more information about notebook batteries.

 

You should calibrate your battery a few times

 

Yes I think I drained it out due to heavy usage...but I didnt think it would affect it so quickly. What exactly is meant by calibrating the battery? If I understand correctly, it means configuring bios so that windows understands and can configure the battery charge correctly. But why do we need to calibrate it? Shouldnt it be done by the laptop and battery manufacturers?

 

Essentially, what you will be doing is when you first get your notebook, you charge the battery to the max and then unplug it and operate on battery power until it's down to 1-2% and shuts down. Charge it and repeat a few times, conditioning the battery. And when you're using the battery, keep it in a nice cool and dark place - heat shortens the life of the battery over a period of time.