Dead Laptop Battery?

Dead Laptop Battery?

I’ve had a Dell Latitude D820 laptop computer since 2006 and had it plugged into ac power for some months now. I also have a Dell Vostro 420 desktop on which I do 90% of my computing.

I recently tried booting up the laptop on battery power and nothing happened. Did the battery simply die … or was the continuous ac power the culprit?

Earlier this year I worked briefly in battery mode and it started warning me to recharge after just a couple of hours unplugged from ac power. BTW, this is the original battery that came with the laptop. What are my options here?

Thanks.

 

IMO your option is to get a new OEM Batt. replacement.

From my experience, yes having it plugged in all the time IS the culprit. My old notebook batt. suffers from this same issue as I kept it plugged in all the time. If the current goes or the power cord is pulled out, you better be happy if you get 15 minutes out of it.

I have now learnt and trained myself to always plug out the power cord from my Netbook once it's fully charged. Let it run down and charge it back up again.

So my suggestion to you is to either call up Dell and get the replacement batt. from them or just look on your batt. for spec. info and run a search on ebay and get it that way. It would most likely be cheaper to get it on ebay vs. directly from Dell but just make sure you are getting the correct one by looking at the specs, model info. on the batt. first.

 

As explain in the Notebook Battery Guide, these types of batteries age and will eventually lose their charge. There are several ways to slow down the aging process but eventually your battery will die.
As you noticed, you battery didn't last as long as it used to earlier this year and it's losing more and more of its charge as time went on.
My notebook computer's battery has suffered the same faith as yours and is completely dead (if I unplug it while the computer is on it will just turn off right away). Like you, I didn't really do anything to preserve my battery, just left it plugged in pretty much all the time but it's inevitable in the end.

You only really have two options: You buy a new battery (from Dell which is often recommended that you buy a battery from the manufacturers - again see the battery guide) or you can just not buy a battery and leave it plugged in all the time (which is what I plan on doing - since I pretty much never used the battery in the first place I can't justify spending that much money on a new battery).

 

laptop batteries and other rechargeable batteries have "memories". That is why the first time you use it, the recommendation was to charge the battery for several hours than usual. This is to attain the "fullest" level of the battery.

Plugging it everytime in the AC outlet will make the battery "forget" the initial level it was drained. It's like it has overwritten the level when the battery completely discharged.

Good luck with your new battery

 

How long one of these lithium-ion batteries lasts seems to be a lottery, which is why the manufacturers only guarantee them for one year.

Yesterday I was testing a 6 year old Fujitsu S6120 and its battery still has a least 50% capacity. One factor may be that the BIOS does not trigger a top-up charge until the battery charge drops below 90%.

However, more recent batteries tend to not last so well. I assume that replacement will be needed after 2 to 3 years. One factor may be that squeezing in more capacity might cause faster deterioration.

John