Laptop battery question

[mikehende]

Is there a utility or something in the BIOS or anything that can tell you if a laptop battery is working or dead?

[classicsoftware]

Most laptops have a battery meter that tells of the battery is charging or running on it's own and when on battery, what percentage of battery life is left.

[mikehende]

Just looked in the BIOS on this Dell Latitude CPx notebook, the BIOS shows 2 separate battery pics, a "left Battery" and a "Right Battery", the left battery status shows "Charging" and is at 48% right now and climbing but the Right battery pic shows "Battery not installed", I don't understand why it would show 2 batteries?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Simply because the cd-rom tray is sometimes a place to have a second battery. In my laptop it's a hard drive but I have a host of other options.

[mikehende]

That makes sense, thanks for the explanation. Strange thing though, the last time I looked, about 20 minutes ago, the battery meter was show 60% charged and climbing, now it's showing 29% charged?

[mikehende]

Problem here is I watched this battery meter charge to 100%, powered off, took off the plug and tried to power on, absolutely no power, explanation?

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Wish I knew. I now have the same problem. If I find it, I'll let you know. Mine may be self inflicted however due to installing an internal wireless card.

Something must have gone 'bump' in the night, where 'night' is the laptop case in this 'case'. Did I say that right? :confused:

[classicsoftware]

How old is the system? What kind of battery. Nickel metal hydride batteries are trained by the usage and that can cause rapid discharge. Need more information to guide you further.

[mikehende]

It's a Dell Latitude CPx Pentium 3, Battery is Rechargable Li-ion.

[George Hallam]

it happened to my mates after a while the battery just dies. do you keep it on charge constantly

[mikehende]

It's not my pc/battery, got it in a lot and I am checking everything out.

[classicsoftware]

It appears to be time for a new battery......

[Fruss Tray Ted]

Well I know for a fact that both of my batteries fully charge up but neither one boots my laptop. Something else is causing this, not the batteries themselves. There's just no response when depressing the power button when the AC cord is removed although after fully draining, then fully recharging the batteries, nothing happens.

Trying a new battery may or may not help the OP here.

$100 or more for a battery is an expensive trial and error method imo. You could buy a VOM for about $10 and test the electrical potential of the battery to see if it has accepted a charge. Also you could test drain it with some 12 volt lamps to see how long it will last too.

Sure, it's nice to have a spare, but it could also be a waste of money and time.

[mikehende]

Trying a new battery may or may not help the OP here.

$100 or more for a battery is an expensive trial and error method imo. You could buy a VOM for about $10 and test the electrical potential of the battery to see if it has accepted a charge. Also you could test drain it with some 12 volt lamps to see how long it will last too.

Sure, it's nice to have a spare, but it could also be a waste of money and time.


That's correct, the wife bought a new battery for her laptop a while back and it never worked good, something else was wrong. I have a voltmeter but the way this battery is made up, how can I test it since there isn't a negative and positive pole like a regular battery?