M11x R1: Anyone else have their battery fail so soon? Is that what's really happening here?

I got my M11x some time in spring. I've barely even launched a game on it (no time) but I do browse with it almost daily. I use it until it needs to be charged once or twice a week but sometimes I go days without using it or a couple weeks without unplugging it for any significant amount of time. I *do* use the powered USB port that remains powered when the notebook is turned off somewhat often, but it's usually plugged in to the wall, so it's shouldn't cause an issue.

Anyway, several days ago I noticed that I only got about 2 hours of battery life when all I did was browse the web (typically twice that). The next day, I unplugged it and it said I had over 4hrs of remaining time but complained that I needed to find a power source about 1:15 later (7% battery warning). It said it was fully charged in a surprisingly fast amount of time (I wasn't counting but it was probably less than 30 minutes). I didn't use it for a couple days and I got less than an hour on my next attempt. This morning it said that I had over 2hs remaining when I first unplugged, so the estimates are dropping, but it gave me the 7% warning about 30 minutes later.

Several times I have left the notebook unplugged and in sleep mode until it was significantly drained (never got around to using it), but that shouldn't cause this.

It's failing FAST. The thing is, this is EXACTLY what the original battery did on my Acer Aspire One last year. Suddenly, every cycle lost around 40% of my capacity despite the battery appearing normal a week earlier.

I looked in the BIOS/CMOS Setup and couldn't find a battery calibration option, so I'm just going to disable the automatice shutdown and run it dead to see if it just needs to be calibrated. FWIW, the button on the bottom corroborates what Windows reports.

 

OK, now my power adapter completely failed: no light, even with other Mickey-Mouse plugs. I guess "battery failure" isn't really what was happening, though it did seem to take out my battery with it.

 

If your power adapter is shotty, it could have prevented your battery from charging much if any. Contact Dell.

 

I will. It was going to 100% indicated by both the OS battery indicator and the one on the bottom of the notebook.

Also, because this is the second notebook battery I've had go bad in a little over a year, I suspect that many of the outlets in this place are bad even though they were supposedly installed brand new just before I moved in. My notebooks have never seemed to have a problem but certain things will not work at all (a small Apple USB charger, for example), they just can't make a connection in these cheap-o outlets that the landlord is so proud of (he installed everything "new" but I'm sure it's cheap stuff).

Then again, the Acer Aspire One's power cord developed an obvious short and this one may have just been shoddy, but I'm going to replace the outlets regardless.

 

YouTube - Alienware M11x power cable and battery problem

OK, I left the cord plugged into the wall but disconnected from the notebook and, a couple days later, I noticed that the light came one. Weird. I connected it up and let the laptop "charge" to 100%, which it supposedly did much too fast. I checked back about 30 minutes later and it was already saying 100%, which it may have said moment after plugging it in for all I know. Either way, it wasn't at a critical level like it earlier indicated if it was now "full." I I booted and the power indicator had a red X on it and said "Consider replacing your battery" when clicked on or moused over. When you click it, it also says that "There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly."

Dell replaced the power cord overnight but not the battery. The new cord has the same specs but is made by Liteon instead of Flextronics (slight variations). I'm going to call them back and tell them that the battery needs to be replaced because it was ruined by the power cord.

YouTube - Replaced Alienware M11x power cord

 

Don't feel badly, I turned on my M11x yesterday at 100% charge without the power supply and it turned off immediately. I'm hoping that it is just a loose battery. It works perfectly when the power supply is plugged in just not when it's unplugged which defeats the purpose of having it.

 

My battery sometimes acts up, saying "Battery not recognized, it will not charge", and the showing a low battery bar, only after a couple of shutdowns, it returns to normal.

 

Contact support - either your adapter needs to be replaced or the battery, or both. You should not see this message (Battery not recognized).