Dell BIOS upgrade, but battery below 10%

[zoso333]

Hello,
Stuck in a catch 22...I replaced the motherboard on our Dell Inspiron 6000 because the AC adapter was damaged. The new motherboard is at BIOS level A08 and I want to flash in A09. THis requires the battery at greater than 10% charge, but It won't charge any higher than 10%. Many online posts state that I need to update the bios to get the battery to charge correctly. Any way to manually calibrate the battery so that it appears charged greater than 10%? Any other tricks to get around this so that I can flash the BIOS?

 

[Dereck47]

Any other tricks to get around this so that I can flash the BIOS?

Have you tried updating the BIOS with the battery removed and the laptop powered with the AC Adapter?

Also, is there any type of charging cradle that can charge the battery outside of the laptop? If so, use that to give the battery a full charge and see if your laptop will recognize the full charge.

 

[looncraz]

Hello,
Stuck in a catch 22...I replaced the motherboard on our Dell Inspiron 6000 because the AC adapter was damaged. The new motherboard is at BIOS level A08 and I want to flash in A09. THis requires the battery at greater than 10% charge, but It won't charge any higher than 10%. Many online posts state that I need to update the bios to get the battery to charge correctly. Any way to manually calibrate the battery so that it appears charged greater than 10%? Any other tricks to get around this so that I can flash the BIOS?

I'd try removing the battery and run from from the charger to do the update...

Good luck!


{EDIT: Ack! Someone already posted this - been sitting on this page in another tab for at least 10 mins or so...}

 

[zoso333]

THanks! I did try removing the battery and updating while on the AC adapter only, but then I get a message to install the battery and it won't let me continue. Dell seems to have covered most work arounds to prevent someone from trying to update the BIOS without the battery showing more than 10% charge.

 

[looncraz]

THanks! I did try removing the battery and updating while on the AC adapter only, but then I get a message to install the battery and it won't let me continue. Dell seems to have covered most work arounds to prevent someone from trying to update the BIOS without the battery showing more than 10% charge.

If the battery is more than 1.5-2 years old, replace it as well. Normally a new battery will come charged and then you can do your BIOS update as well.

I did a quick search for an A08 BIOS issue on the 6000 series in regards to charging and couldn't find anything, but I remember similar issues while I was working at Dell ( including denying that the machines caught on fire... then forwarding them to our legal dept... ).

I believe your battery should have the test button with the 4/5 LEDs to indicate battery charge, if you have more than one light, you should have more than 10% actual charge, and the laptop is not recognizing the charge.

That would mean a defective motherboard. Most likely a physical issue rather than BIOS...

Good luck!!

--The loon