[SOLVED] Problem with laptop battery

[enargins]

I have a 4 year old Dell laptop (Windows 10) which I mostly used on AC power. Even when I used battery power, I used an external battery pack, so as to preserve the internal battery.
A few months ago I used the laptop on battery power, and it was fine. Working normally.

Now I find the following happens:

• Battery will be at 100% when I start to use it.
• Will drop to 89%, then slowly to 88%, then 87%, then all of a sudden will go to 6%
• When I plug the AC back in, it shows charging at 6% with an estimated charge time of 2 hours. Then, a few minutes later, it's fully charged.

Recently I found that the battery meter was not showing in the system tray, nor was it available as an option. So I disabled the battery in Device Manager, and then re-enabled it, and then the battery meter all of a sudden appeared in the system tray.

So I'm wondering if these problems may be software related, rather than just a bad battery, since, as noted, the battery was working fine just a few months ago, and it's hardly been used at all during the life of the laptop.

Thanks!

 

[punkncat]

Most likely needs a new battery.

Being a Dell you can use the Dell Support Assist program, and you may well have a system check within BIOS. I have several Dell systems that can run a self test from the BIOS.

 

[enargins]

Good idea. Will do that. Thanks!