# dell inspiron 6000 battery?



## Desmodus (Nov 28, 2004)

i've had my dell inspiron for a little over 2 years, never had any major problems. normally i run it off ac power, but every so often i switch to the battery and let it run down, i heard that extended ac use can zero the battery. a couple of days ago i let the battery run low, then switched the ac on to recharge the battery, but it won't. in the power setting it shows the power status as ac with battery recharging, however the charge remains at 0%. appart from this it appears to run normal. the power light (below the monitor) flashes between steady green (ac power) and flashing yellow (battery level low). i've read on other threads that it is ok to remove the battery altogether (with a ups), is this ok? is it worth having it serviced/getting a new battery? 
any advice is appreciated.


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

If you use the battery often enough, I suggest getting a new one. If not, you can go ahead and use the UPS. I personally think the battery died. If you somehow prevented the system from entering a power-saving state, you may have damaged the lithium cells, causing them to lose their ability to hold a charge.


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## GhODs (Aug 5, 2006)

Desmodus said:


> i've had my dell inspiron for a little over 2 years, never had any major problems. normally i run it off ac power, but every so often i switch to the battery and let it run down, i heard that extended ac use can zero the battery. a couple of days ago i let the battery run low, then switched the ac on to recharge the battery, but it won't. in the power setting it shows the power status as ac with battery recharging, however the charge remains at 0%. appart from this it appears to run normal. the power light (below the monitor) flashes between steady green (ac power) and flashing yellow (battery level low). i've read on other threads that it is ok to remove the battery altogether (with a ups), is this ok? is it worth having it serviced/getting a new battery?
> any advice is appreciated.


I also use inspiron and the warranty is about to run out this month, i've been using a application called Notebook Hardware Control (NHC) to monitor my battery information from time to time.. after reading so much about dell batteries, i started to monitor the battery closely, this is what i've found out.. for the first 6 month of using the battery, NHC indicate that the battery is at its full capacity and the wear level is 0%, since i never flat out the battery, the system will detect that the battery is still functioning properly, charging in and out, once i flaten out the charges (Flat 0, till the system shut off) then plug-in AC to charge the battery again, guess what.. NHC wear level indicator shows 13% wear level and that's about 10,389mWh gone from the battery in just one drain, following that, i started to monitor the battery for the next 6 month until now, flatten out the battery once every month, only this time, i mostly use AC instead of the battry to run the system, this is what i found out, every calendar month, like it or not, your battery wear level will increase by 2.16% losing a charge of 2701mWh a month even if you are not using the battery and after exactly 12 month of using the system my dell inspiron battery have a wear level of 26% and a full charge capacity drop from 79920mWh (9 cell) to 58908mWh that's about 21,012mWh gone.. If you have been using your dell for almost 2 years (24 month) just try to multiply 24x 2701 = your battry should almost be dead already.. well as far as i know.. Dell battery have some kind of an electronic counter that will systematically depletes the battery charges even though the cell is still active and functioning.. some says this is a conspiracy some say this is just a plain business strategy and some even says it's how Dell make money through consumable parts.. who knows.. based on my obeservation if someone whould want to test the situation, try not to flatten out your battry charges to 0V, try always to save atleast 20% of the charges in the battery as the critical level, i bet after this your battery will survive even longer with 0% wear level, you will always get atleast 3.5 -4.5 hour of battery.. a word of warning though.. once you flatten out the battery after +6 month or so and recharge again.. a huge wear level with appear.. and your battery will never be the same again.. i'm buying a new battery soon as the wear level indicates +50%.. Hope this help.. and if i'm right.. using the same technique i've gathered for the past 12 month i should know how to manage my battery batter.. cheers..


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Not quite. I have personally monitored new Dell batteries, and they do NOT exhibit this. As the rate of capacity drop is not constant on all batteries, it may not be 'degrading' at all. This user reorted a sudden loss. This would indicate that the "smart" battery's failsafe kicked in and prevented charging of the battery as to not overcharge. Communication was somehow cut off. 3.5-4.5 hours is not always true. This depends on the physical configuration of the battery, the capacity of the battery, the placement of the battery on the system. Current conditions, the power of the computer and the health of the battery. On a system running on low power, this would be so, but many systems get about 2-3 hours on a battery.


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## GhODs (Aug 5, 2006)

Most system do get 2-3 hours of battery, maybe my configuration does have advantages, for the first 6 month my configuration allows me to use my system on continuous battery life for 3.5 - 4.0 hours before needed recharging, this is playing AVI's, normal work and editing i could get 4.5 - 5.0 hours this with screen illumination set to 80% if lower i could get around 6.0 hours.. emmm if it's true to what you say about failsafe, the battery system failsafe usually start when your battery charged is around 90% to completion, this is when you see the charge lite blinking at pulse, to prevent over charge, the monitoring of the battery in done around this percentage area, but i'm no expert, i'll try to monitor my new battery soon..


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Failsafe is not to prevent overcharge. The smart chip manages overcharging. Failsafe is what disables the entire battery when one lithium cell dies. When a single cell dies, the failsafe kicks in, to prevent damage and possibly leaks/explosions.


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## BrianTwigley (Jun 13, 2005)

Well, my 8 year old CPi Battery still holds around 1-1 1/2 hours worth of charge. I usually run it down then charge it back up again.


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## GhODs (Aug 5, 2006)

That's 8 years.. still can hold charges, what are the odd of having a good battery to die in just 2 years? Some even say their battery dies a few weeks after the warranty period is over, some are lucky enough to have the battery dies before the warranty ends, in thish case i guess the best best way is to use the battery instead of just AC, let the battery dies when the time comes, atleast we we have used it before it died..


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## laboye (Apr 11, 2006)

Yea, thats what me and a few friends call the "Warranty Chip". It is designed to kick in the moment your warrany expires, shorting out whatever device you have... :grin:. As far as 8 years, thats one good battery! I have a bunch of older Toshiba batteries (4-6 years) that also still work great. One or two cells have died, so it drops a good percentage when it hits certain cells. No failsafe on the older ones...


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## trandom (Sep 17, 2007)

yea the same thing happened to my inspiron 6000, it switched to hibernation mode and i tried to put the AV cable in to stop it from going into hibernation and now the light wont stop flashing from green to orange. the battery seems fine, the battery works fine and my laptop doesnt die when i disconnect the AV cable. It only charges to 95% however the light is constantly flashing between green (stable battery) and orange (low battery).
does anyone know whats wrong with it, or how i can fix it


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## rlk00003 (Jan 10, 2010)

The flashing orange light is a warning that your battery is/ has become faulty as the battery charge is low. It is telling the user that it is not charging up to its highest amount, and that it is time to invest in a new one or claim it on your warranty. Your battery should still provide you with over an hour or two usage.


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## dankobler (Feb 3, 2010)

I just had this same thing happen after nearly 4 years of use. It does seem that everything is functioning correctly, and I get about 1:15 of battery use remaining when I unplug. The problem is that little flashing light, even when I'm on AC power. Any solutions on disabling that, other than a new battery?

Thanks


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## dimmaemmy (Mar 11, 2010)

i have a laptop that is like 4 years . the battery normally discharges in like 1 minute which allows me to run and plug it back to the electricity without shutting down. but recently when i unplug it it goes off instataneously that is a bit bad and battery light keeps flashing orange .i triend checking the battery and it says no battery present .:4-dontkno


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