Dell Latitude E5450 Swollen Battery

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I have a Dell Latitude E5450 laptop with a swollen battery.

The Dell Support website says that while the computer should not be used with a swollen battery, it is not dangerous to use it. It also says, though, that great care should be taken when handling a swollen battery – presumably when removing it. It appears to be a straightforward procedure to remove the battery – remove the bottom cover, undo a few screws that hold the battery in, unplug the battery cable, and lifting the battery out.

So this leads to two questions:

1) Just how dangerous is handling a swollen Li ion battery?

2) Can I use the laptop without a battery by running it off the charger? It seems that the answer is ‘yes’ if I have a reliable power supply at the wall outlet. Can anyone verify that it can be run with the charger but no battery?

This is a very nice little laptop that I would very much like to keep, although I don’t particularly want to spend $120 for a new battery (that’s the Dell price, and I’m not sure I trust Amazon, or anyone else, for that matter, to provide a decent quality battery).

Any and all input will be appreciated.

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Hey DrBonzo, have you tried the dell product site?
You never know if that battery has been recalled and you may be entitled to a free replacement on return of the original battery or even call dell support and ask, worth a try IMO

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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DrBonzo

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Good idea but no luck.

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[Alex5723]

DrBonzo wrote:

1) Just how dangerous is handling a swollen Li ion battery?

Very. Don’t handle the battery alone.

“2) Can I use the laptop without a battery by running it off the charger?”

Yes, You can, but as stated above don’t take out the battery by yourself. Go to support center…

• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.
• This reply was modified 4 years, 2 months ago by Alex5723.

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DrBonzo

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The article said that if you are not confident that you can remove the battery safely, to have it done professionally, not that you never should. You know your skill and comfort level better than anyone!

My almost 2.5 year old Dell G3’s battery has dropped to 59% of its original capacity even though I have had it in “mostly AC use” battery preserving mode in the UEFI, and I have only deep cycled it down to 5% for the purpose of calibrating the battery. My Acer Swift is half a year older and gets used on battery constantly, deep cycled to dead (bad) numerous times, and there is no battery saver option in its UEFI. It’s at 93%.

I need a new battery for it, but the last one was a genuine Dell, and it’s poor. There is no reason aftermarket batteries can’t be high quality… just that it’s hard to tell if it is a good one or a cheap knockoff. Evidently, even having a genuine branded battery is no guarantee it’s any good.

 

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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wavy, DrBonzo

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It turns out my laptop has a Li-ion polymer battery, which is inherently somewhat safer than a Li-ion battery because the electrolyte is a gel rather than a liquid (the gel is somewhat less likely to leak and is less flammable). The swelling caused enough distortion in the case to partially pop off the bottom cover. What I could see by peering into the resulting crack appeared to be intact. I ran the battery down to an indicated 7% charge, at which point I was warned to either shut down the computer or plug the charger in (obviously I shut down). I took the bottom cover off (six screws and some gentle prying with a fingernail and plastic thin blade screwdriver), unplugged the battery cable, removed three more screws and the battery lifted right out.

All-in-all it was a piece of cake. Some of the outer cladding of the battery had started to separate, but the gel-filled pouches were intact. It would have been essentially impossible to breach the pouches without taking a sledge hammer to the battery. So it seemed to be a very safe procedure.

Right now I’m debating whether to just button the whole thing back up and use it without the battery (I never take the laptop anywhere) or whether it’s worth about $100 for what amounts to a ups.

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cmptrgy, Ascaris

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If you go aftermarket, you may be able to get it for half that. I’m still undecided on my G3’s battery. I’ve used aftermarket batteries for laptops before… never any disasters, but I did get some that would not charge to 100% (they would keep charging forever, which did not seem safe, so I removed them). Had that happen with 2 of them (from different suppliers). Both replaced the thing under warranty with no difficulty.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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cmptrgy, DrBonzo

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It’s good that you know that the Dell price is $120 and I imagine you probably found out via
https://www.parts-people.com/.

When I help someone who needs a replacement laptop battery, that’s the first thing I do: find out what it costs via Dell parts or the original vendor when possible.

I prefer the original OEM vendor whenever possible and in your case, you really like your Dell Latitude E5450 laptop which is an incentive beyond just getting a replacement battery.
— Dell usually has a full year warranty and if I remember correctly, the first 30-days is an absolute returnable warranty.

With that said though
ascaris post #2355246 includes an excellent statement
“Both replaced the thing under warranty with no difficulty.”
In my experience, that’s been very successful when dealing with reliable 3rd party vendors.

HP EliteBook 8540w laptop Windows 10 Pro (x64)

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DrBonzo

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I decided to get a new battery through Amazon. The brand is Echeer and is a so-called Amazon Choice. It has a 1-year warranty, cost about $43, and the real tipping point in their favor was the inclusion of 2 screwdrivers – one phillips and one torx (star)). One can’t have too many screwdrivers!

The battery installed very easily, the laptop recognized the battery, and I’m currently fully charging/fully discharging the recommended 3 to 4 cycles. So, everything seems absolutely fine so far.

Two points to mention:
1) the listed product dimensions on the Amazon web page are incorrect. The pictures seemed correct as far as placement and relative locations of various tabs, screw holes, etc. I noticed that several other batteries also listed incorrect dimensions.

2) Upon removal of the old battery, I at first glance thought the cable was an integral part of the battery. The cable had so much insulation wrapped around it that the plug and corresponding battery socket were obscured. Some one with experience with this would undoubtedly know what to look for, but if you’re new to replacing batteries it might be something to keep in mind. You need the cable! The only laptop batteries I’d ever replaced before were the snap in kind to the external case (no cables of any kind)

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cmptrgy, GoneToPlaid

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