Windows 7: New laptop battery messes up date/time, etc...

Hey guys,

Beginning with, here is a rundown of my laptop specifications:

RUNNING: WINDOWS 7
XPS M1330, Intel Core 2 Duo T9300(2.5GHz, 800Mhz, 6M L2 Cache)
Matte Black Casing XPS M1330
4GB, DDR2, 667MHz 2 Dimm, for XPS M1330
13.3 Inch Wide Screen WXGA TL WLED Backlit LCD with Camera
128MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS
56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
BIOS Revision A15

Okay, so it's been over a year, and my 6cell battery is beginning to die out. I ordered a replacement battery from eBay rather than Dell. I'm a college student, and paying $50 sounded better than paying $200. Anyways, I bought a 9cell battery for my XPS. So here's what happens when I plug in the new battery:

AC Charger with NO battery: Computer runs perfectly fine
AC Charger with battery: Computer runs perfectly fine
Battery with NO AC charger: Problems...

When I plugged in just the battery alone, I went into BIOS and saw that the system's date and time were screwed up; it was showing some weird date in the year 1901. With this new battery, sometimes the hard drive wouldn't load. For example, when I turn my computer on, I can hear the hard drive spinning, but after a couple of seconds, the whole system just...freezes.

I initially thought it was a problem with my hard drive, since a screen kept coming up saying that some of the Windows files were corrupt. I did a clean install of Windows 7, and even tried Vista, but still nothing. With Vista, the date and time would still mess up, and sometimes nothing would load. I even tried system restoring after booting from the CD drive, but I received an error message that I had no shadow copies to restore from. I tried starting up with another hard drive, but still had the same issues.



Right now I'm using my old battery, and I get the message "Consider Replacing Your Battery." Can anyone help shed some light on this issue? Does the problem seem to be with the new battery? Any and all help will be appreciated. Thank you.

Have you installed Dell Quickset (which has some smart battery control funtions)? Is a Genuine Dell battery? I've seen similar problems due solely to using generic batteries in the M1330.
Tom

Yup, Dell Quickset is installed and running. And yes, this is a generic battery as opposed to an OEM battery. Can this be the source of my problem? I want to know if there is any way to solve this issue.

I have three M1330s and never had the problems you mention, but I use Genuine Dell batteries. I'll bet it is the battery.
The last 9-cell I got was on eBay for around $50. I noticed this new one from a 100% positive feedback seller:
New Genuive OEM Dell Xps M1330 9 Cell Battery - eBay (item 250541622424 end time Dec-09-09 15:57:34 PST)

Thanks, is there anything I can do with the BIOS perhaps? Possibly let it run on non OEM batteries? Is there a reason why the date and time mess up with this battery other than it being a non OEM battery? My BIOS is the Dell Revision A15 by the way.

UPDATE: I found that if I put this new battery in, and go into BIOS, the date and time are already messed up. However, once I fix the date and time, then Windows loads properly. If I turn the system off, I'll have to go into BIOS again first, fix the date and time, and then load Windows.

SECOND UPDATE:

I tried using the battery on my friend's XPS M1330. The new battery runs PERFECTLY on his computer, and does not reset or mess with the date and time at all. His XPS has the same exact specifications, include the BIOS Revision A15. So I don't understand how the battery works perfectly fine on his computer, but always resets the date and time on my computer. Can anyone help shed some light on this issue?

Can you flash the BIOS to a new version?

My laptop, as well as my friend's laptop, are both updated to the latest BIOS - Revision A15.

This sounds to me like a bad CMOS battery.