Hi
I have a Dell Studio XPS 1645 which I have had for about 2 years so its out of warranty. My battery has stopped charging so the laptop has to be plugged in constantly. I have read about a lot of issues on the internet where this has happened with various fixes been:
- Replacing Motherboard
- New charger
- New battery
Is there a way to find out what is the cause of the problem (or even a fix to the issue)?
Thanks
sooty1892,
Welcome to SF. Before this started how was the run time on the battery in minutes? The charger / ac adapter is unlikely to be the issue as it's still providing power to the laptop. I suspect the battery is toast. If it was a motherboard issue then again the laptop wouldn't likely function. Have you cleaned and check all the contact for this battery? The contacts are spring loaded so you may need to pull them out slightly.
If I were to hazard a guess, I'd go for replacing the battery, although it may be rather expensive.
My wife has an HP laptop whose battery expired just after two years, but was quoted £123 ($200) to replace it.
So now it's a portable laptop that's tethered to the mains electricity!
I would say I could just get 2 hours from the battery on normal use (ie word processing). I have cleaned the connections and that hasn't helped.
I found a battery for my daughter's hp laptop on amazom for $25.00, and it has worked for over a year.
Sooty1892,
So you went from just around 2 hrs. use on a full charge to zero....just like that? It sure sounds like maybe a pin isn't making contact with the battery. Did you check to see it the contacts with the laptop and battery are spring loaded and making good contact?
You can order a battery for any system on eBay quite cheaply. I order hundreds per year and haven't had a problem with a single one.
Sooty,
Disconnect power.
Remove the battery.
Connect the inverter.
Reapply power.
With the inverter connected, does your laptop have power?
Disconnect power.
Reinstall battery. Be sure that battery is correctly and firmly seated.
Reconnect power.
All OK.
Happens to be that I have a laptop which due to jostling the battery connection will not be solid. Removing and reseating firmly solves the problem.
I have never had a battery go out on me. I have had inverters go bad. In fact, just recently went to Fry's and purchased a quality universal laptop inverter.
Try running SIW (link in my sig) and go to the part on your battery in the hardware portion. What does SIW say about your battery?
Good idea to test with SIW. In my case however, with a DELL XPS my battery slowly went down to a similar 2 hours.... tested it fully and finally replaced it, now all's well. Sounds stupid probably but DELL gave me the advice to take out the battery when running on powerline for longer periods. The battery is said to lose its capacity when constantly hot....
Yes, never leave a laptop running on AC with the battery in. If the battery is in, you need to charge it all the way up and run it all the way down, every time. Any other method of use will cause the battery last less each time, and eventually die.
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