battery discharging?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jo-Anne
  • Start date Start date
J

Jo-Anne

Using WinXP on a Dell Precision laptop that's about 6 or 7 years old.
Tonight I noticed the battery light was flashing red but I was running on AC
power (I always keep it plugged in). I pulled the power cord, and the
computer turned off; it should have kept running on the battery. I plugged
it back in and turned it on. The battery showed 1% remaining and that it was
being charged. It's up to 19% now.

Does this behavior mean that the battery is dying? If not, what could have
caused the problem?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne
 
Ghostrider said:
Yes. The battery needs replacing. For it to last 6 or 7 years is
a pretty good life for it. It will recharge but it will carry the
charge for only a very short period of time.

GR
Click to expand...

Thank you, GR! I'll see if I can get one locally.

Jo-Anne
 
Thank you, GR! I'll see if I can get one locally.

Jo-Anne
Click to expand...

No wait! Some machines once the battery charges, won't recharge or check
the battery unless the AC dies or the battery is removed. As long as it
is charging right now, that is a good sign. Just let it finish. Then
remove the AC and it probably will continue to run on the battery. Btw,
I had batteries last over 12 years.
 
BillW50 said:
No wait! Some machines once the battery charges, won't recharge or check
the battery unless the AC dies or the battery is removed. As long as it is
charging right now, that is a good sign. Just let it finish. Then remove
the AC and it probably will continue to run on the battery. Btw, I had
batteries last over 12 years.
Click to expand...

Thank you, Bill! It did fully charge last night; and when I pulled the power
cord just now for a moment, the computer continued to run and the battery
showed 100%. Is it possible that I had accidentally loosened the power cord
and that's why the battery ran down? The icon at the bottom of the screen
showed it was running on AC power, but could it have showed that even with
the connector not fully seated?

Jo-Anne
 
Thank you, Bill! It did fully charge last night; and when I pulled the power
cord just now for a moment, the computer continued to run and the battery
showed 100%. Is it possible that I had accidentally loosened the power cord
and that's why the battery ran down? The icon at the bottom of the screen
showed it was running on AC power, but could it have showed that even with
the connector not fully seated?

Jo-Anne
Click to expand...

Yes that is indeed very possible too. Although it could happen when
everything is connected correctly and the battery is never removed or
the AC isn't either. As some charging designs are like that. And it
isn't normally a problem since things has to be left in this state for
years before the battery would self discharge down all of the way.

Now this isn't to say your battery is near retirement. As we don't know
the true capacity of the battery. You could find that out by seeing how
long you can run it off of battery power. I usually retire a battery if
it only runs a machine for 10 minutes or less, even if I use the machine
on AC all of the time. If the battery is this bad, it probably won't
last too much longer anyway.

But there is something you should do before you count a battery as bad.
As the machine keeps tracked of the battery's capacity. If it has been
awhile since it was ran on battery from full to empty, the calibration
would be off since the battery capacity changes with age. So the machine
is figuring wrong and shutting it down too early.

So I would give it two more runs from full to empty on battery to give
it time to figure it out correctly. Also in Power (in Control Panel) has
slider controls when to shut down the machine based on the battery
capacity. I forget where the default is suppose to be at. But anywhere
between 3 to 20% should be good for starters.

And if after the third time running from a full battery and it still
quits in 10 minutes or so. I would say it is ready to be retired.
 
BillW50 said:
Yes that is indeed very possible too. Although it could happen when
everything is connected correctly and the battery is never removed or the
AC isn't either. As some charging designs are like that. And it isn't
normally a problem since things has to be left in this state for years
before the battery would self discharge down all of the way.

Now this isn't to say your battery is near retirement. As we don't know
the true capacity of the battery. You could find that out by seeing how
long you can run it off of battery power. I usually retire a battery if it
only runs a machine for 10 minutes or less, even if I use the machine on
AC all of the time. If the battery is this bad, it probably won't last too
much longer anyway.

But there is something you should do before you count a battery as bad. As
the machine keeps tracked of the battery's capacity. If it has been awhile
since it was ran on battery from full to empty, the calibration would be
off since the battery capacity changes with age. So the machine is
figuring wrong and shutting it down too early.

So I would give it two more runs from full to empty on battery to give it
time to figure it out correctly. Also in Power (in Control Panel) has
slider controls when to shut down the machine based on the battery
capacity. I forget where the default is suppose to be at. But anywhere
between 3 to 20% should be good for starters.

And if after the third time running from a full battery and it still quits
in 10 minutes or so. I would say it is ready to be retired.
Click to expand...

Thank you, Bill! I'll give that a try this weekend. So far it seems OK since
I fully charged the battery...

Jo-Anne
 
Thank you, Bill! I'll give that a try this weekend. So far it seems OK since
I fully charged the battery...

Jo-Anne
Click to expand...

Thanks for getting back to us. And that is good to know. :-)
 
Jo-Anne said:
Using WinXP on a Dell Precision laptop that's about 6 or 7 years old.
Tonight I noticed the battery light was flashing red but I was running on
AC power (I always keep it plugged in). I pulled the power cord, and the
computer turned off; it should have kept running on the battery. I plugged
it back in and turned it on. The battery showed 1% remaining and that it
was being charged. It's up to 19% now.

Does this behavior mean that the battery is dying? If not, what could have
caused the problem?

Thank you!

Jo-Anne
Click to expand...

....did everyone watch the youtube video of the Laptop, in an airport lounge,
doing the li-ion thermal run-away thing ? !!! ... :-)

....FLASH ...BANG ...POP ...CRACKLE ....FIZZLE ..etc. ???

regards, Richard
 
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