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    XPS 13 random low battery shutdown while plugged in, no warnings

    Discussion in 'Dell XPS and Studio XPS' started by Randysea, Jun 2, 2021.

  1. Randysea

    Randysea Notebook Enthusiast

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    This is a 4+ year old laptop. Battery wasn't holding charge for more than two hours. I replaced it with a Dell-branded battery purchased from Newegg. In between old and new battery, I held down the power switch a couple of extended times to be sure everything was drained.

    Everything seemed fine. Powercfg /batteryreport showed battery capacity slightly above rated max capacity. The machine ran fine on battery.

    I also tried running the machine continuously on battery until it ran down after 3+ hours. My idea there was to recalibrate the battery measurement for the new battery, though I'm not sure that really did anything.

    The problem is that the machine sometimes acts as if the battery is so low that it forces a shutdown, even when the laptop is plugged in and the battery is showing 100% charged. This seems to happen on a totally random basis. I might just be reading an email and PAF! the machine shuts down with no warning.

    Looking in Event Viewer, there is an information that there was a battery shutdown: "Critical Battery Trigger Met" No errors or warnings. The machine reboots normally. On restarting programs (e.g. Word, Thunderbird, etc.) there is no message about any improper shutdown.

    I have tried switching power schemes Dell and Balanced. For each, I first did a "restore defaults". No difference.

    Also from the Event Viewer, details on the battery shutdown event:


    EventData
    Index 0
    ActiveBatteryCount 1
    RemainingPercentage 0
    IsAcOnline 1
    BatteryActionInternalFlags 0x80
    IsPowerActionCallIgnored 0
    IsPowerPolicyEnabled 1
    PowerPolicyAction 6
    PowerPolicyBatteryLevel 5
    PowerPolicyEventCode 1
    PowerPolicyMinState 4
     
    Last edited: Jun 2, 2021
    Randysea, Jun 2, 2021
    #1
  2. King_Khan

    King_Khan Notebook Consultant

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    It sounds to me that the battery you installed might be defective. See if you can "force" it to happen by running a heavy application on battery like prime95.

    If the laptop shuts down then you know that the battery cannot keep up with power requirements.
     
    King_Khan, Jun 24, 2021
    #2
    kojack likes this.
  3. kojack

    kojack Notebook Prophet

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    Yes, the battery is defective. Best thing to do is buy an off brand from amazon prime. That way you can return it no questions asked. I am going to bet that your dell branded battery is in fact, not a dell battery at all. Just a copy. I don't trust NewEgg any farther than I can throw one.
     
    kojack, Jun 26, 2021
    #3