Battery problem with laptop

agentzero9

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I've been using my laptop (Dell 700m) about 5 days a week for the past 6 months. It has performed well and the battery life has been excellent.

Then just yesterday all of a sudden when I unplug the AC adapter, the computer shuts off immediately, as if there is a power outage. Usually it switches to battery power.

Additionally, I can't turn on the computer unless it is plugged in. The power button is completely unresponsive unless the AC power is connected.

I have tried unplugging and plugging the battery back in but this hasn't helped. If the battery was dying shouldn't it slowly loose it's charge? I was still getting about 4-5 hours of battery life just a week ago.
 
Most Dell battery's have a cycle counter inside, after so many recharge/discharge cycles (300 seems to be the magic number) the battery will cease to work, even if the cells are not truly bad. In short it has to be replaced.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

I went to Dell's website looking for a replacement battery ($139 for refurbished!) and I found some interesting reviews.

Here's one:"


"Ive had the laptop for a little over 2 years, but didn't really use it the first 1.5 years since I had my work laptop. So 95% of the time, it was powered off. I started using the laptop consistently and after 7 months, the battery died completely. BEFORE it died, I had over 4 hrs of battery charge on it...so the battery was still in good condition. When it died, laptop could not recognize the battery and when it booted up"


Very suspicious. This is practically the same situation I am in. Had the laptop for about 1 month past the 2 year mark and it completely dies. Not only that but for the first 1-1.5 years I hardly ever used it. Some people reported it having only 20 minutes of battery life after 2 years. Ok this I can understand. But it for it completely die seems fishy. Not only that but it seems that the 2 year mark it the end for this battery no matter how frequently it was used.
 
Thanks for the feedback.

I went to Dell's website looking for a replacement battery ($139 for refurbished!) and I found some interesting reviews.

Here's one:"


"Ive had the laptop for a little over 2 years, but didn't really use it the first 1.5 years since I had my work laptop. So 95% of the time, it was powered off. I started using the laptop consistently and after 7 months, the battery died completely. BEFORE it died, I had over 4 hrs of battery charge on it...so the battery was still in good condition. When it died, laptop could not recognize the battery and when it booted up"

This is practically the same situation I am in. Had the laptop for about 1 month past the 2 year mark and it completely dies. Not only that but for the first 1-1.5 years I hardly ever used it. Some people reported it having only 20 minutes of battery life after 2 years. Ok this I can understand. But it for it completely die seems fishy. Not only that but it seems that the 2 year mark is the end for this battery no matter how frequently it is used.
 
Only Dell notebook batteries come with a 1-year warranty, are engineered for optimal safety and performance for Dell systems, and are supported by Dell technical support for the length of the warranty period.
Maybe it's still under warranty?
 
Most Dell battery's have a cycle counter inside, after so many recharge/discharge cycles (300 seems to be the magic number) the battery will cease to work, even if the cells are not truly bad. In short it has to be replaced.

That is completely untrue. I have Dell batteries that have been going strong for 4 years and probably 600+ charge/discharge cycles. Now granted the life of that old battery is completely horrendous, but that is to be expected. It still functions perfectly fine however...

A cutoff switch is complete urban legend.
 
That is completely untrue. I have Dell batteries that have been going strong for 4 years and probably 600+ charge/discharge cycles. Now granted the life of that old battery is completely horrendous, but that is to be expected. It still functions perfectly fine however...

A cutoff switch is complete urban legend.

This seems what Apple did to their iPhone battery?
Honestly, I don't believe there is a cutoff switch, otherwise Dell surely would have been sued for that, but, your laptop battery is old? Maybe if there was such a thing, it would have been implanted in newer batteries?
 
This seems what Apple did to their iPhone battery?
Honestly, I don't believe there is a cutoff switch, otherwise Dell surely would have been sued for that, but, your laptop battery is old? Maybe if there was such a thing, it would have been implanted in newer batteries?

I assure you there is NO such thing. a) it is completely impractical to do (it wouldn't be a simple easy to build circuit), and b) as you said if they *did* do it, they would have had their asses sued back into the dark ages. This is right up there with all the "ZOMG my Digital Camera was built to die 3 days after the warranty ended!!!1!1!1one!1!"
 
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