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Laptop battery issue

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Bizarre

Guest
I have had my Dell Inspiron 1545 for about a year now, got it June 09 and I get a warning when I start up my laptop saying: Your battery has reached the end of its usable life.

I'm not an idiot and I know what this means, but I just got the laptop a year ago and to replace the battery would cost $150.00, I dont want to spend $150 every year if this happens, are there any other alternatives?
 

Spiros

Maiki
So the battery doesn't hold a charge at all?

You should atleast try calling Dell and kicking up shit about it, because even though your past your 1 year warranty it's still ridiculous and you won't lose anything by trying.

Also my bet would be you just got a bad battery, my first laptop, the battery lasted 3 years and probably would've lasted way longer had I kept that laptop, my second laptop, the battery lasted maybe 6 months but still held a charge(maybe 20 minutes). I was still in warranty so HP sent me a new one, no problem.

I think you just got a bad one, so don't think about it like they'll all die the same time every 14 months. It sucks, but I think the first thing you should try is bitching to Dell about it... all the usual stuff about keeping you as a customer, and you'll never buy a Dell product again. etc.
 
B

Bizarre

Guest
I'm going to call Dell if I can't do anything myself, and before I got this message I would get about 2 and a half hours out of it, now I get about an hour.
 

Deathrow

Member
Damn Nick48, I just encountered the same problem with my Dell M1530 XPS.

I think it's overcharging your battery and its life reduces. Unfortunately, the only things I could think of is a different 6-cell battery or upgrade to a lithium-ion battery =/
 

Spiros

Maiki
I'm going to call Dell if I can't do anything myself, and before I got this message I would get about 2 and a half hours out of it, now I get about an hour.

Yeah, same exact thing happened to my battery: one day it lasted maybe 3 hours, the next day I'd get a message on startup about a faulty battery and get maybe half an hour of battery life. Hopefully Dell will help you out.
 

EvilSeph

Administrator
What operating system are you running?
 

EvilSeph

Administrator
That's what I thought. Windows 7 has issues with battery management. I'm not completely aware if this has been fixed or not, but seeing as my battery was killed by Windows 7, I don't think so. Look into updating your BIOS if possible. This fixes the issue for some people, however, in my case my battery is dead regardless.
 
You should atleast try calling Dell and kicking up shit about it, because even though your past your 1 year warranty it's still ridiculous and you won't lose anything by trying.

Also my bet would be you just got a bad battery, my first laptop, the battery lasted 3 years and probably would've lasted way longer had I kept that laptop, my second laptop, the battery lasted maybe 6 months but still held a charge(maybe 20 minutes). I was still in warranty so HP sent me a new one, no problem.

Do this.

Chances are, they will do something about it, even if it's a discount on the replaced battery cost. Complain about the usable lifetime of an investment you brought just over a year ago.
 

EvilSeph

Administrator
My bios is updated, would a reflash do the same thing?

You're out of luck then. Your battery could be dead or miscalibrated. Either way, you can't do much about it apart from getting a new battery.
 
B

Bizarre

Guest
Yea I'm going to call Dell tomorow when they open, I'll post what they say here in case another person encounters this issue.
 
B

Bizarre

Guest
Ok so an update if anyone encounters this, I called Dell and they refused to give me a new battery even for a discount because my warranty expired in April.
 
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