I have a Dell Latitude CP laptop, PII 233, with docking station. For
the last few months, the computer is able to work only when it has AC
power supply connected. The battery LED indicates it is fully
charged, but if the AC is removed the computer won't boot.

I would think that if the battery wasn't connected to its power lines,
it would eventually lose it charge, but it has been fully charged
this entire time.

Can anyone tell me why the battery seems to be able to charge itself,
but not supply power to the computer? Any fixes?

thanks
Mark
Toronto

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Hi Mark,

How old is the battery?

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys too cheaply . . .
~ He esteems too lightly



cstage wrote:

|I have a Dell Latitude CP laptop, PII 233, with docking station. For
|the last few months, the computer is able to work only when it has AC
|power supply connected. The battery LED indicates it is fully
|charged, but if the AC is removed the computer won't boot.
|
|I would think that if the battery wasn't connected to its power lines,
|it would eventually lose it charge, but it has been fully charged
|this entire time.
|
|Can anyone tell me why the battery seems to be able to charge itself,
|but not supply power to the computer? Any fixes?
|
|thanks
|Mark
|Toronto
|
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cstage wrote:
As the battery ages, the charge capacity declines, appearing finally at
fully charge with a capacity too low to supply power. There is no fix
except for a new battery. You should remove a dead battery unless you
need it to couterweight the screen.

Q

cstage wrote:
The lights on the battery show what the battery gauge chip tells them.
If the chip is (too far) out of sync with the battery charge level, the
system won't run.
Sometimes there's a calibration routine that can fix that.


You don't say what battery technology you have. Lithium Ion Batteries
typically fail with high internal resistance. The charge is in there,
you just can't get it out at a voltage that will run the computer.

The battery lights will show there's full charge...and there is...but
when you turn on the computer the internal resistance causes a voltage
drop that the laptop interprets as a dead battery and shuts down.

mike


--
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Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
Compaq Aero floppy,ram,battery.
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On Sat, 18 Sep 2004 06:47:00 -0700, mike <spamme0@juno.com> wrote:

fault of the actual cells (as far as I can make out). The battery
takes a full charge, which shows as such on both the on screen monitor
and the LED gauge on the battery. However, when you run off battery
it only lasts a few minutes and both the on screen monitor and the
battery LEDs show that there is no charge.

But, it doesn't end there. If I disable the alarm level shut-offs by
taking them to zero in Power Management, the laptop will run for a
full two hours with the gauges showing a red X on the battery symbol,
1% remaining charge and no run time left.

Any clues for that one?

JJD

JJD wrote:
Quoting from the top of this message:


--
Return address is VALID.
Wanted, 12.1" LCD for Gateway Solo 5300. Samsung LT121SU-121
Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below.
Compaq Aero floppy,ram,battery.
MINT HP-41CV, 2-METER AMPS, 200CH SCANNER
http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/

On Sun, 19 Sep 2004 07:35:26 -0700, mike <spamme0@juno.com> wrote:
another laptop I have, but not this one.

JJD

JJD wrote:
I've never tried this myself but have been interested in removing the
battery devices from device manager and rebooting with the battery
installed - perhaps resetting windows battery parameters in the process.

Q

That's a good idea... turn off power mgt and see how long the batter
_really_ lasts. I might try it sometime just to see how correct windows is
in reading my Latitude D600's battery level. It last for three hours as it
is, wonder if it'd go 3:30 if allowed to.

JBW

I had this issue with my Armada M300. The only fix I found was to open
the battery, disconnect the cells from the controller board, and short
out the points on the controller board where the cells connected (to
fully discharge capacitors on the board). This resets the gas-gauge
(it stores its running parameters in RAM, not EEPROM).