[SOLVED] Replacement battery doesn't charge on Dell M3800 ?

[kman42]

I have a Dell M3800 which was getting a fairly high level of battery wear, so I decided to replace the battery. With the original battery it woud charge and discharge fine. However, when I bought a new (Dell branded) battery, it worked fine for a few weeks then started doing this thing where the AC charger will hold the charge, but not recharge the battery. IE, if I run on battery and it gets down to say 30%, I'll plug the charger in, and both the Windows battery Icon and the Battery Bar software I installed both say the battery is immediately 'Fully charged'. However, I unplug the charger and it immediately drops back to 30%. The battery drains some more over time, say 20%, I plug the charger in and again it immediately reads 100% charged.
I thought it was a faulty battery so I returned it and got a replacement. While I was waiting, I re-installed the original battery and it went back to charging/discharging exactly as its meant to (except for the high high wear). When I got the replacement battery, it did the exact same thing as the 1st battery I bought and read 100% when its not!
I've tried:
-reinstalling battery drivers

• flashing BIOS
• doing the special plug-in/restart/unplug combination that some people identified
• checked any power management options I can find

No effect from the above. Any other ideas?

 

[hang-the-9]

Even if you bought a new Dell battery, I would guess for that model it has been sitting around for a few years before getting sold. This can cause the battery to fail. I'd return the battery and try another one.

 

[kman42]

Even if you bought a new Dell battery, I would guess for that model it has been sitting around for a few years before getting sold. This can cause the battery to fail. I'd return the battery and try another one.

This is the second replacement battery from the same seller. They had identical issues.

 

[hang-the-9]

This is the second replacement battery from the same seller. They had identical issues.

Check the date of manufacture, if it's several years old then there is a good chance they just both are bad. Batteries can't sit for long periods of time unused. I had to throw out about 6 Lenovo batteries that were brand new but failed when I tried to use them, they were just sitting in storage at work for several years.