Topic: Laptop Battery

[Ghandi]

Every time I open my laptop now, I get a warning that "Your battery is charging normally, however it is nearing the end of its usable life." It's a Dell, Inspiron 6000, and I know a few other people on the boards have a Dell laptop. Has anyone gotten this warning? My initial impression is that I have awhile left on it yet, they just gave me the warning at 99%. I've tried to find the overall life left but I can't seem to get a measurement.

[idolminds]

Probably just some built in timer software to scare people into buying a new battery from Dell or simply buying a new laptop.

Thats my cynical guess, anyway.

[Quemaqua]

Dell and Gateway can suck goat excrement.  So yeah, I don't know, but I wouldn't put it past them.

[Cools]

I never had that happen with my old Dell laptop (Inspiron 8200).

But, my current Apple laptop's battery almost blew up on me. It swelled up and almost cracked completely open on one side. I'll post pictures at some point.

[iPPi]

How old is the battery?

I believe that you can check out how much 'life' the battery has now by holding down the 'charge indicator' button on the battery for 3 seconds.  That should indicate the battery's overall life, at least from what I've read.

[Ghandi]

It's about a year and a half old. I held down the 'charge indicator' button and it indicated that total health was 100%, so I dunno. The 'Battery Health' tab gave me the same message as before and said that I "might want to think about" replacing it. So based on the language used, I'm gonna stick with it until I have to get a new one. Let's hope that it doesn't blow up on me.

[WindAndConfusion]

But, my current Apple laptop's battery almost blew up on me. It swelled up and almost cracked completely open on one side. I'll post pictures at some point.

That wouldn't have been a Sony battery, would it?