1520 9-cell battery charging

Has anyone noticed the 9-cell battery on the 1520 is super slow to charge? I've had it plugged in for almost 8 hours and my indicator only shows 69% (up from about 40% this morning).

 

Wow, 8 hours? I'd be inclined to think you've either killed your battery somehow, were shipped a faulty one, or your indicator's been hijacked. Take you're pick.

 

Sounds like the battery might be faulty. Had that happen to an old laptop and ended up having to replace the battery because it was struggling to hold a charge and the battery would run out fast even though it said it was fully charged. Call Dell and they might be able to help you out... if they can't, make then send you a new battery! Good Luck!

 

Just thought I'd follow up in case anyone else has this issue.

I called Dell and they upgraded me to the latest firmware (A03), even though there don't appear to be any power-related fixes in it. They told me to keep an eye on it and they would call back to see if the problem went away.

I kept a detailed time line of the battery charge indicator and emailed it to them. I got a call the next day from a CSR to do a battery health check (which was fine) and they decided to send me a replacement.

I installed the replacement today and it seems that the issues I had are more related to Vista settings than the hardware. I'm using the "high performance" power setting. The battery drains quickly and charges slowly with this setting.

All morning, while I was working on my laptop with the high-performance setting, the battery charge only got to about 46% (I didn't think to check where it started). I switched to the power-saving setting and left for lunch. When I got back (about an hour later), the battery was fully charged.

Maybe I'm expecting too much, but I've never noticed a laptop that didn't charge as quickly when I was using it as when it was in sleep mode.

 

Hello,

This is Richard from Dell's Online Community Outreach group here in Round Rock, Texas. I was curious about your post and wanted to ask you a question. Is it a 65 Watt or a 90 Watt adapter that is being used to power this computer? The amount of power wattage would be a big factor, in the charging time for the battery.

Please reply back as it may shed some light on what you are experiencing.

Regards,

Richard B
Dell Online Community Outreach

 

I read somewhere in the manual that a fully dead battery should only take 3.5 hours to fully charge. If you are taking more than that there is a problem.

On a side note...did you pay your utility bill last month? you sure that light socket works?

 

Thanks Richard!

I just checked and my AC charger is a 65-Watt model. Will getting a 90-Watt model help significantly?

I heard a rumor that Vista's filesystem indexing can be a real drain on battery life, so I disabled that option. My battery still didn't last any longer - this morning, it only took about 2.5 hours before I was down to about 15% and I only have the monitor at a medium brightness setting.

I was hoping for a battery life of about 4 hours, but maybe that only happens with the best power-saving settings. Now I feel bad about sending the first battery back, since it's probably fine. At least someone should be able to pick up a cheap "refurbished" battery with almost no hours on it!

 

Haha!

D'Oh! Now I really feel bad for harassing the poor Dell CSR about my battery!

 

Hello again,

Yes a 90-Watt adapter is going to make a difference in the charging time for the battery. So, that pretty much explains the situation that you were experiencing. As far as the battery life, you would have to really tweak the hardware profiles (battery profile) to get 4 hours out of it.

Regards,

Richard B
Dell Online Community Outreach

 

So what is the deal. I've heard that Vostro with internal graphic came with 65W and dedicated graphic with 90W adapter. Is it the case? Mine Vostro 1400 came with 90W and I have nVidia 8400M GS.

 

Hello,

That is exactly right!

Because you have a higher end graphic GPU it would require more wattage, thus why you got the correct power supply of 90-Watts. On the other hand tcfodor's computer has the Intel integrated video which requires less power, which is why the default power supply is 65-watts. Even though the systems are different, Vostro 1400 and Inspiron 1520, the power requirements are constant.

If the Inspiron 1520 had a NVIDIA GPU then the default power supply would be 90-watts. However, the system can use a 90-watt adapter regardless the graphics.

Great question!

Regards,
Richard B
Dell Online Community Outreach

 

Interesting. So the video upgrade actually include the power adapter upgrade too. I know the 65W adapter is somewhat smaller and more portable, but it may not be good if it takes forever to recharge a battery. I guess one may need to have the laptop off in order to charge the battery using a 65W adapter.