cpu help

May 30, 2007 5:53 PM

My Dell's battery won't charge. Any thoughts, suggestions?

I have repeatedly checked to see that it was inserted properly, and is. The icon which give statistics on charging is constantly stuck at zero %.

I have had the battery/computer for less that a year. During that time the battery was rarely used. I finally used the battery a couple days ago and drained it completely. I didn't think much of it then but I had some problem getting Windows to run. Windows is fine now, but the battery doesn't work. Prior to this, that is the last time the battery was working.

The battery is completely dead after checking it independent of the computer.

Should I run BIOS and recalibrate it? What does that mean anyway?

The battery is a D5318, F51356. I didn't see anything on it being recalled.

Do I need a new battery? Is this something I can fix/troubleshoot?

posted by j-urb to computers & internet (7 comments total)

boot into bios and let the battery completely die while there. Then charge it completely without turning computer on. Sometimes this works...
posted by Raichle at 7:30 PM on May 30, 2007

I have a Dell Inspiron laptop, about a year old, and I was having a similar problem recently. The battery wasn't charging, and I kept getting errors about my power adapter not being recognized. I got a new adapter and that fixed the problem.
posted by candyland at 8:16 PM on May 30, 2007

Many Dell batteries have a charge indicator on the battery. Press the dot on the battery, If any of the status lights blinks, it indicates a bad cell, and the battery is corrupt.
posted by theora55 at 8:20 PM on May 30, 2007

there are no dots. i suspect that the battery has malfunctioned or is dead, but it is less than a year old and i very sparingly use it.

luckily my power adapter is working fine (at least it seems that way since i'm able to use the net).

i will give Raichle's suggestion a shot, although the battery is already dead.

i think the battery may have just went out, although i'm a little concerned that it may be a software issue since windows was giving me some trouble after i tried to turn on my computer when the battery first completely ran out.
posted by j-urb at 8:34 PM on May 30, 2007

it sucks to buy a new battery if you rarely use it...
might be able to get one cheap on ebay (especially if it's a latitude).

You could call dell tech support... but they wont replace it.
posted by itheearl at 9:21 PM on May 30, 2007

My Dell is just over a year old. I've kept it plugged in almost exclusively. I recently got a popup saying that my battery was at the end of it's usable life, and a few days after that, one that said my battery needed to be replaced. It now holds a charge for about 20 minutes. My conclusion? Dell batteries suck.
posted by Ruki at 12:04 PM on May 31, 2007

Actually I did call them up and they apparently are shipping me a new battery to me. My computer is still under warranty which appears to be a big plus. I'm kind of upset (and in disbelief) that the battery is so poorly made.
posted by j-urb at 1:33 PM on May 31, 2007