Dell D620 Battery dies at 90 precent

[jimmysofat6864]

For some reason, my D620 randomly shuts down at 90 percent. I have tried to calibrate the battery but it dies too early. How can I make the battery gauge more accurate. Also it is an aftermarket battery.

 

[SamMaster]

I used to fix Dells for a long time. The D620 is very venerable. Aftermarket batteries don't always play well, and sometimes it can report the wrong charge, or it just discharges too quickly. Afte a year I wouldn't trust the battery honestly. How old is it? There should be a section in the BIOS that tells you the battery health status, or you can run built-in diagnostics to verify it (f12 at Dell logo for boot options).

 

[jimmysofat6864]

I used to fix Dells for a long time. The D620 is very venerable. Aftermarket batteries don't always play well, and sometimes it can report the wrong charge, or it just discharges too quickly. Afte a year I wouldn't trust the battery honestly. How old is it? There should be a section in the BIOS that tells you the battery health status, or you can run built-in diagnostics to verify it (f12 at Dell logo for boot options).

The battery is about maybe 4 years old. In the bios the battery health still says good but it dies early. Any way to make the battery percentages more accurate?

 

[SamMaster]

Not that I know of, that is managed by the circuitry on board the battery itself. It could just be that the battery isn't reporting proper information. After 4 years it is due to be replaced anyway. At my current work, we have a policy to replace them after 3 years. Any battery that lasts more then that with a decent enough charge is exceptional from my experience.

If you have access to another battery that fits the D620 you can propably add another layer of troubleshooting to confirm it isn't laptop itself that has the issue.

 

[Topweasel]

D620. This is like a 15 year old computer.

Worked with 100's of D820's.

Few things. One if there is a dysync between the battery and PC. Pull the battery, while the system is unplugged, and attempt to power on the laptop.

But your problem was especially regular during that period of time. The batteries were basically shells for normal off the shelf Lithium Ion batteries. If cells were dying, the computer would barely be able to tell. As long as it is fed the range of supported voltages it would report back with the related battery %.

Honestly these batteries back in the day only had a good 2 years in them and regularly became nearly unusable after 3. Probably time to decide if you want to continue to replace the battery.