Dell latitude d400 battery calibration

[ratdude747]

this stinks

i have a dell latitude d400 that i just bought. the battery needs re-calibrated something fierce... it will say 0% for half an hour before running out of juice.

i do not think dell makes a calibration utility for my model

is there a way to re-calibrate it? ubuntu will not let me set it to not auto-shut-down at 5%... so until i fix this, i am stuck with windows if i want to get use out of my battery...

[yyonline]

Re: Dell latitude d400 battery calibration

I've done this a few times to fix a different problem...

When starting up the computer, go into the BIOS setup by pressing F2. At this point, let it sit there until the battery dies. There should be no power management auto-shutting it down or anything since you're only in the setup program. Let it run until it dies...crank up the screen brightness to drain the battery faster. Then recharge. I've had this fix Dell batteries that won't charge to 100%. Not sure if it will help with your issue, but I doubt it could hurt much.

[Scenic]

Re: Dell latitude d400 battery calibration

^ same thing i usually do.
if you have enough time (a.k.a. you don't urgently need the laptop for anything), repeat it a couple times.

brought quite a few batteries with 10-15min. real runtime (already at 0%) back to well over 1 hour with pretty accurate %-readings..

they usually went down to 0% more or less instantly when disconnected from the charger but still ran a while before i did this..

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell latitude d400 battery calibration

well, i think i am screwed.

dell has no recalibration utility for my model... a bunch of full charge cycles have done nothing. it still gives an hour to 0%, and 20-30 min of charge after that. it might be good for the cell only... this sucks.

all i can conclude is my battery is f*cked... i guess i reached the majic number of charge cycles, so it decided to crap out on me...

unless there is another way consider this thread and my battery a lost cause...

[ratdude747]

Re: Dell latitude d400 battery calibration

yeah, the battery is hosed. the wear gauge on the battery gave me 4 out of 5 lights, and 5 lights is the worst, 4 is still not good.

bummer... i did not plan on replacing the battery on this thing... if only i can get my parents to let me craigslist my two dell towers that scored 0 hits in the for sale part of the forum.