E6400 6-cell vs 9-cell battery

The problem with the old threads in general is that they often consists information that is either outdated, incorrect, irrelevant or based on speculations about new products, which is misleading, hardly could result in any productive discussion and usually only cause arguments, that's why people usually aren't encouraged to necro-post and the old threads get closed. That's been the practice here for years.

As to your reply above to my old post, if I had been interested to get some numbers from Dell's site about a half an year ago, I could have done it myself if I had been sure of their validity at that point as unlike you I have no time to waste for estimating notebook's weight based on questionable information, which is something you have done many times before, unsuccessfully of course.

And for future reference, it would be great if you don't share you findings with me as I have never been interested in them to begin with. Thanks, but no thanks.

So what? IMO, it's much better to start a new thread and immediately get the answers you are looking for rather than make people go through weird old threads and comment on outdated posts, which unnecessarily attract attention, especially when they are about something that is no longer a matter of discussion.

 

Can someone confirm with me that the 6-cell and 9-cell batteries are interchangeable? I've recently got an E6400 with a 9-cell battery and I am used to my 14" laptops being a bit lighter... so I'm thinking of getting a 6-cell battery. Only problem is the place I am buying it off reckons they aren't compatible? Has anyone tried swapping them over?

Cheers

 

Technically speaking, if you select the right battery both will work with your machine. However, if I am not mistaken, the motherboard nly supports 1 battery. You will be rest the BIOS by removing the CMOS (motherboard BIOS) battery (date/time and settings will be lost) to make the laptop support your new battery. You will need to do the same when if you switch back to your other battery. If the laptop CMOS is not reseted, then you will get an error at the startup of the machine saying that you do not have a Dell battery and that the laptop will not recharge it. You should be able to continue your system boot-up after this message.

Of course I have not tried it, I got this because I had this issue when my motherboard was replaced, so I assume this to occur with 2 batteries... but I might be wrong. I know that their should not be an issue if you use the laptop second battery port (12-cell battery).. but that is for the 12-cell which you add to your current battery. If you already have your machine, contact tech support for more information on what you are trying to do. I hope they prove me wrong about the 6 and 9-cell battery switch.

Remember to SAVE all conversation (I suggest to do it via chat), in case you don't get the e-mail of the conversation, in the case that the technician is wrong and you need to return the battery and Dell refuses. So that you have proof that you were miss lead.

 

100& switchable & compatible - nothing more difficult than 5 seconds, and does not require resetting the CMOS or BIOS or any such procedure.
I have 6 cell as well as 9 cell batteries for both laptops, and switch them out on an almost daily basis.

 

Awesome! Good that my assumption based on my motherboard replacement is wrong. Well at least you know what to do when you replace your motherboard of your laptop

 

FWIW i recently aquired the 84Wh slice for my E6500 (w. 6cell primary).

I think its a good combination with the 6 cell, i can either run sleek or fat, rather than being always stuck with a pregnant 9 cell when I dont need it.

Would be nice if the slice passed through the dock connector though rather than having to remove it to dock, which also means that I have to plug the power directly into the laptop to charge the slice, or use the other power adaptor to plug directly into the slice and charge the primary cell on the dock... if that all makes sense.

 

Just like ofelas said they just switch out I also do this with my D620. Nothing to set at all..... plug and play.

 

sometimes i think itd be nice to have a 6-cell as well, but i dont carry it around THAT much, and it is nice to have that extra battery time if i need it.

 

Only drawback to my 9 cell is it doesn't fit in my sleeve without pulling the battery off. I also have a case that it just barely fits in with the battery. Just a heads up if you have bags,cases of sleeves that are already tight.

 

The trick is to get 1 size bigger. In my case my case, my sleeve was for 14 and 15inch notebook. The thing is that in reality Dell laptops are smaller than most laptop. So the 9-cell is not really an issue. Also dell provides all dimentions.. so if you read, then it's not an issue