Are Dell Laptop Batteries That Finicky?

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easysurfer said:
Not the prettiest thing, but effective.
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Ah, when the cover is back on, nobody will see it.

It's just like people wearing worn-out underwear, because nobody else would know. :D
 
NW-Bound said:
Ah, when the cover is back on, nobody will see it.

It's just like people wearing worn-out underwear, because nobody else would know. :D
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I'll slap a bit of gaffer tape on the opening and will be better than new :).
 
easysurfer said:
I'll slap a bit of gaffer tape on the opening and will be better than new :).
Click to expand...

Gets the job done!

And w/o the internet (and helpful people/companies sharing information), how would anyone know that it was possible to cut that section out and expose the battery w/o damaging something else?

Hmmmm, w/o the internet, we'd probably have far fewer computers to fix. Just not as much to do with them if they are isolated like that. Starting to sound like that old song "There's A Hole In The Bucket" :)

-ERD50
 
Just plugged in the new cmos battery. Laptop is fixed. Works better than new.

Didn't even need to tape up the opening I cut out. What's an opening the size of a about postage stamp between friends anyhow? :popcorn:
 
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Do a "static discharge" to drain any electricity stored in the capacitors after you power off the pc. This works for all pc's.


I use to do this many times at work for people calling in to the help desk as their laptop would not start up.
Dell warrants their battery for 1 year while it is 3 years for the pc itself....





Steps and photos and a video below:

https://www.techsupportall.com/how-to-power-drain-the-laptop-desktop-clear-static-charge/
 
Well, looks like I spoke too soon thinking the CMOS battery change solved my laptop's Dell power up issue.

Very odd as the laptop didn't boot up at all before changing CMOS battery. Now, does so sometimes.

Looks like back to internet searching some more to see if there is a solution. Otherwise, may have to consider cutting my losses.

Only good thing is I'm not going crazy as others too had the same issue going as far back as 2015.

https://www.dell.com/community/Lapt...0-won-t-turn-on-and-black-screen/td-p/4547830
 
Does it have the latest Dell BIOS?
 
target2019 said:
https://youtu.be/XLDHI8_My-s
Turn sound down. Shows disassembly and cleaning motherboard. Reseat the processor. Just one more idea.
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Thanks, but think I'll pass on the tear down attempt.

My theory now wonders if the issue is a [-]racket[/-] feature from Dell requiring use of price inflated Dell OEM batteries and power adapters to work properly. I read somewhere that Dell has their batteries chipped.

I own both a non-OEM battery and adapter.

A pattern I've found (and performed today) is that after several attempts and powering on and off. The battery indicator light showed charging. Once when the light went off (indicating) battery full. I press the power button, and the laptop starts up normally.

A workaround, I suppose is to keep the laptop on "suspend" state (MX Linux machine). Once on suspend, laptop wakes up fine. I did a Kill-a-Watt measure on how much energy the laptop will waste on suspend state and the amount is a little over 1 watt.
 
easysurfer said:
My theory now wonders if the issue is a [-]racket[/-] feature from Dell requiring use of price inflated Dell OEM batteries and power adapters to work properly. I read somewhere that Dell has their batteries chipped.

I own both a non-OEM battery and adapter...
Click to expand...

If Dell pulled this shenanigan, I would think the laptop would consistently fail to boot.

It sounds like an intermittent hardware problem. Does the laptop ever crash or freeze up once it is up and running? Or does it run fine once it's up, and only has the problem while booting?
 
NW-Bound said:
If Dell pulled this shenanigan, I would think the laptop would consistently fail to boot.

It sounds like an intermittent hardware problem. Does the laptop ever crash or freeze up once it is up and running? Or does it run fine once it's up, and only has the problem while booting?
Click to expand...

Once after booting up, laptop works fine.

My next play, I have an old, not good shape but still genuine Dell battery that I'm charging now with my non-OEM adaptor. I also ordered just now an OEM charger (didn't break the bank, only about $14). When the OEM charger arrives, will test with only OEM and see what happens.

Actually, except for this power up glitch, I quite like this laptop. But a person can only take the glitching so many times :facepalm:.

As the saying goes, to be continued ..... (when I get my OEM charger).
 
target2019 said:
Does it have the latest Dell BIOS?
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Think I'm being stalked by google.

I did a couple of searches on Dell Bios and not booting then this articles came up today. Actually, article says using a current BIOS (not necessarily for my laptop, but some Dells) can make the Dell not bootable :(.


Customer reports shared on social media platforms, including Dell's official community website [1, 2] and Reddit [1, 2], warn that the latest BIOS version (version 1.14.3 for Latitude laptops, 2.8.0 for Inspiron, and 1.0.18 for Aurora R8) will cause booting issues.
Although the impacted systems will power up, users say peripheral lights and displays will not turn on. When they boot up, they'll go straight to a blue screen and shut down again.
"After upgrading my 5320's BIOS to the new 1.14.3 version today, the laptop will not boot. When pressing the power button, the light on the button will show for around 10 seconds and then turn off again," an affected customer said.
"Occasionally the whole keyboard lights up but the laptop will shutdown shortly after, but sometimes the laptop will turn on and display a 'Time-of-day not set - please run SETUP program' error, and upon pressing 'Continue,' the laptop will then shutdown again. A few times it has booted but then shown a blue screen for a while before shutting down."
Click to expand...

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...s-cause-laptops-and-desktops-not-to-boot/amp/
 
^^^ I hate this kind of crap, because of lousy/buggy software and firmware.

When I was young, I used to take it as a challenge trying to identify and to search for a solution. Now that I am older, I get mad. Enough already. When does this incompetence end? Do they test anything before they ship it out? Do they use their own software inhouse, or do Dell programmers use a different brand of computers at home and at work? How dare they waste their customers's time?

It makes me want to throw the hardware through their office glass window.

 
I Might Be Onto Something

Did some trial and error.

On my Dell laptop's bios setting, I change the boot time to fast booting. Was set to more checking and slower boot before.

For 4 times in a row, the laptop booted without a hitch.

Maybe the culprit was a simple as that setting.

I'm going try again in the morning to see if the success is repeated or just beginner's luck.
 
So, the model Dell Latitude E5430 was made when? The first came out in August 2011. Man, that's generations ago. And the BIOS version is important when searching. With an old Dell I never had a problem using the latest available BIOS, which would still leave the machine years out of date. But you might get support for some device that was added to the machine before re-sale.

Someone can find just about anything to prove that a change should not be made. But in the vast number of BIOS upgrades, it goes well.

There's no doubt that you have an unusual problem with the used computer. I would check all the hardware, like HD, chip, memory, etc. to see exactly what is in the box. It's easy for a reseller to futz up a machine, then offload it with bad drive, or memory pull from another bad machine. "I think it's good." It booted once...

I hope your fastboot change does it good.
 
target2019 said:
So, the model Dell Latitude E5430 was made when? The first came out in August 2011. Man, that's generations ago. And the BIOS version is important when searching. With an old Dell I never had a problem using the latest available BIOS, which would still leave the machine years out of date. But you might get support for some device that was added to the machine before re-sale.

Someone can find just about anything to prove that a change should not be made. But in the vast number of BIOS upgrades, it goes well.

There's no doubt that you have an unusual problem with the used computer. I would check all the hardware, like HD, chip, memory, etc. to see exactly what is in the box. It's easy for a reseller to futz up a machine, then offload it with bad drive, or memory pull from another bad machine. "I think it's good." It booted once...

I hope your fastboot change does it good.
Click to expand...

On 2nd thought based on the above post, my earlier post was unduly harsh.

There may be something flaky in hardware that the "fast boot" skips checking, and which causes the computer to hang with the normal boot.

I wonder if there's a more comprehensive diagnostic that can be run when the computer is up and in normal operation.
 
target2019 said:
So, the model Dell Latitude E5430 was made when? The first came out in August 2011. Man, that's generations ago. And the BIOS version is important when searching. With an old Dell I never had a problem using the latest available BIOS, which would still leave the machine years out of date. But you might get support for some device that was added to the machine before re-sale.

Someone can find just about anything to prove that a change should not be made. But in the vast number of BIOS upgrades, it goes well.

There's no doubt that you have an unusual problem with the used computer. I would check all the hardware, like HD, chip, memory, etc. to see exactly what is in the box. It's easy for a reseller to futz up a machine, then offload it with bad drive, or memory pull from another bad machine. "I think it's good." It booted once...

I hope your fastboot change does it good.
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, the fastboot didn't cure the laptop's booting ills.

Very peculiar as I had set the laptop on fastboot. Booted fine 4 times successfully, then before bed, tested and booted again fine. Thinking, I found the culprit. Shut down laptop and left off overnight.

Then in the morning, same issue. Almost like if you a car that takes several cranks to start up.

You'd think the no posting should be consistent but is intermittent. The pattern I've found to finally "turn over" and start is after pressing the power on, and when laptop doesn't post, I let battery charge awhile. The little white led goes off to indicate charged, then I can press power button it will start up.

I do have the latest BIOS version. Now wonder if that could be part of the issue (after reading that article I posted in a previous post). Guess I could downgrade to a prior BIOS to see if that does anything. But doesn't sound like fun and maybe not worth the effort.

I may just go back to the keep on "suspend" mode method as sort of a work around.
 
[FONT=&quot]#66 When does this incompetence end? Do they test anything before they ship it out?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Google: Microsoft fired all of their QA people[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]True story! Crazy to do that.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Did Dell? Do not know but they may not test and test as needed but just enough before the bean counters intervene.[/FONT]
 
Do a google search on: Dell Latitude E5430 capacitor


Look at the videos and links for the issue.

The Dell model you have was made in 2014. You can buy another for $159 at Amazon or do a search there or at google for: refurbished computer laptops



Many to choose from.
 
Davidhelp said:
[FONT=&quot]#66 When does this incompetence end? Do they test anything before they ship it out?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot] [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Google: Microsoft fired all of their QA people[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]True story! Crazy to do that.
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]
[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Did Dell? Do not know but they may not test and test as needed but just enough before the bean counters intervene.[/FONT]
Click to expand...



It's because customers now accept crappy products as a fact of life.

And where can they go, if all manufacturers are the same?

And it gets crazier, when even something serious like self-driving cars rely on customers to be beta testers.

Here, try this new software version to see how it works. If you get killed or total your car, it's your own fault.

Good grief!
 
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