HELP! Laptop battery indicator Flashes Yellow Even When charger is Disconnected

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With or without the charger connected, the battery charge status light flashes yellow four times, then tray icon shows I’m (very) slowly losing charge and insists the charger is plugged in and not charging. When I plug it in, the screen brightens just a bit, unplug it and it dims a bit. So I assume I am getting voltage and current. It’s like the circuit insists I am not charging. I have:

1. Measured the output of the charger at the end-19.2 volts, right where it should be
2. Turned the laptop off, disconnected the battery, charger, held the power button down for 20 seconds, reversed the procedure, rebooted-same issue.
3. Ran the laptop off right at the outlet, bypassing the UPS-same issue
4. Went into Device Manager, uninstalled and reinstalled the APCI power managers (there were three)-same issue.
5.  Gone through the diagnostics (f12) at boot, and it insists the charger is fine, but the battery is 55% health, or so-so. This should not cause this issue, tho, I think.

The laptop was fine when I left it, came home, hooked it up and this nonsense started.

Hoping to get a fix here before I run out of power as this is my only PC!

HALP!

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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If your battery is only reporting 55% health, it sounds like a replacement might be a good idea.

How old is the battery? Might it be covered by warranty?

Do you have an alternate charger you can try plugging in?

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Uh, this is REALLY weird…I was in diagnostics mode, and in a fit of pique I unplugged the a/c adapter, plugged it back in again, and suddenly the indicator turned white and stayed white, charging started again, it eventually went from 94 to 100%. As expected, the finishing charge took about 20 minutes to go from 94 10 100%.

If the battery is, as the “Dell Diagnostics” say, 54% health and near the “end of it’s useful life”, could this be a factor in this insane scenario? As battery health decreases, resistance to charge usually goes up, at least in lead-acid types; Lithium-Ion I’m not so sure about.

Or was it just a software glitch in the APCI?

<Stage Dir: Alarm off, blow tanks, re-surface, everyone have a smoke…operator looks like a fool…>

My late PC Guru used to say, “Computers just do insane things at times for no traceable reason. It’s why I have no hair.”

Will keep posted here if it does it again…feel free to comment (on the issue, or my hysteria…):

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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Kirsty wrote:

How old is the battery?

I’d certainly be wanting a backup battery on hand…

Being a Dell, I presume the battery is removable – how well does the charger work in powering the laptop without the battery connected?

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Nibbled To Death By Ducks

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Kirsty,

Does it have to be from Dell? There are a lot of after-market vendors out there with 1 yeara warranties, from $25 to $88! (Ow. And at Xmas…$$$)

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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Does it HAVE TO BE FROM Dell? probably not…

My appetite for risk vs. cost, I go for the genuine, known quantity. I find Dell’s batteries to be a reasonable price (usually with delivery included, and prompt supply of the goods), however you may have a local reseller that gives you a better price.

As batteries are a known fire risk, I wouldn’t personally buy an unknown brand just for the price 🙂

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Plus, if there is a battery recall (there have been loads of them over the years) your much better with the OEM brand, usually entails an online form fill and a swap for free new for old. Don’t get that with 3rd party stuff.

Edit: might be an idea to see if your existing one has been recalled over at dell: https://www.dellproduct.com/

 

If debian is good enough for NASA...

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Kirsty

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One of the first thing I checked. No recalls.

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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As a senior citizen on a very tight budget, I am also aware that “No one spends more than the man who buys the cheapest”. I try and strike a balance, and it ain’t easy. I chose my vendor because:

1. He’s four miles from me, and if something goes haywire I can drive over and drop it on his toes (ha-ha)

2. I personally spoke with him, and he said he’d personally test it before shipping

3. His prices are dead set in the middle of the range-(See opening paragraph above.)

4. His store seems to have decent ratings. We shall see.

Oh, and I am changeing (if I can) this back to “Unresolved” until the new battery is back in, and at least 72 hours pass before it’s properly cycled a few times, and nothing either re-asserts it’s head or the new battery fails. That was one weird malfunction, and Doriel’s input of a similar experience was vital in trying to decide what to do.

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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I see 2 possibilities.

1. The power circuit on the motherboard is not well.
2. The battery is not well.

If you plug the power in and remove the battery does it work?

cheers, Paul

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Nibbled To Death By Ducks

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[Nibbled To Death By Ducks]

Guys and gals, we cross-posted. See above.

Paul Kirsty, I’m afraid to try it until it acts up again.

Kirsty, it’s old. OEM, I think. I am looking for a new battery…what does everyone like as a maker/vendor?

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=battery+for+dell+e6330&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

https://www.rakuten.com/shop/search/replacement%20battery%20Dell%20E6330/

(I like to buy from Rakuten if I can afford it….Amazon needs some competition on-line.)

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

• This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Nibbled To Death By Ducks.
• This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by Nibbled To Death By Ducks.

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doriel

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[doriel]

I had this problem too. I have Dell Latitude E6530 connected via docking station and I use 130W adapter. Baterry LED blinked orange and windows said my battery is not charging. So I replaced it with ORIGINAL Dell battery and this issue disapeared. For example:

 Smaller battery – brand new, eBay
– 35 EUR – approx 40 USD

Hope this will help. Have a nice day.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

• This reply was modified 5 years, 3 months ago by doriel. Reason: spelling errors

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Nibbled To Death By Ducks

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Thanks, Doriel. Good input.

I do know a bit about batteries, just about up tp the Lithium Ion age, but some things are universal. It’s just not a matter of voltages and W/H capacity matches, there are circuit impedance/reactance/resistance/admittance factors in there as well. Put the wrong battery in there with different values of those four factors, and you can have a mess. The charging circuit won’t like it!

I’m very interested in finding a non-OEM maker/vendor who makes a good match for less than Dell, but as this is eBay, and coming from the Netherlands with “May not ship to United States”, it may be an issue. Nice, tho to know that I CAN get a Dell replacement without paying Dell OTC+shipping prices,

Best of the season!

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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@NTDBD: Try looking for vendor 2-Power. We have two batteries from them in our company too, it works for more than one year, but I cant confirm 100%, I do not use these notebooks, but users are not complaining.
I wanted original Dell battery for my laptop so I bought it, but I tried cheaper solution too and it seems to work with Dell too.
Dunno if you can find it in North America, but its worth the try.

Dell Latitude 3420, Intel Core i7 @ 2.8 GHz, 16GB RAM, W10 22H2 Enterprise

HAL3000, AMD Athlon 200GE @ 3,4 GHz, 8GB RAM, Fedora 29

PRUSA i3 MK3S+

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OK….24 hrs and no aberrant behavior from the power sections at all; but just to make sure, ordered a generic replacement which will be here by Monday. Since virtually 100% of these PC batts are made in China, I ordered from a local outfit through Rakuten that, if it’s a dud, I can drive it over there and [EDITED – keep it seemly!]. Got free shipping, too. Talked to the supplier personally over the phone. (Horrors! People still use those to TALK to each other?)

Anyway, The present OEM is diagnosed as “54% health, nearing end of ‘useful life’ (is there an ‘unuseful life’?), so I got a $40 generic , right between the most expensive (Dell) and the cheapest on Amazon, so if it turns out NOT to be the issue, I won’t feel so bad.

Thanks to all on here, will keep this posted as developments warrant.

(I just HATE spending $$ at Xmas on emergencies [this, the car] instead of things for other people that they need…)

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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You were fortunate that your charging issue got sorted out, usually the procedure with HP laptops is to remove the battery and hold the power button for 30 seconds. The charging circuit reset procedure may work for other brands laptops.

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anonymous wrote:

You were fortunate that your charging issue got sorted out, usually the procedure with HP laptops is to remove the battery and hold the power button for 30 seconds. The charging circuit reset procedure may work for other brands laptops.

Tried that too. No Joy. At this point it’s either an old OEM 5 year old battery with 1100 cycles on it and 54% “life” left in it, or some bizarre issue with the charging circuit, or the AC to DC brick [dying] under load, and testing fine in a static mode (unplugged from the PC, but plugged into the wall).

“No tech problem is really fixed until it’s been fixed for two weeks.” (Anon)

“Call no IT tech happy until he or she has croaked.” (Apologies to Solon)

I’ll have my batt by Monday. We’ll see.

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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Oh, and I forgot…it could also have been a transitory, non-repeatable impedance mismatch glitch introduced by running the laptop off a UPS during a  500 ms. power surge/dip…read up on that one too…and SoCal Edison is notorious for it’s failing 70-year old infrastructure. Distribution station fires, “pole pigs” blowing up. etc, etc. 🙂

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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Well, whatever it was, a new battery seems to have fixed it. A “Poder” Non-OEM, it’s made totally in China; it’s very thinly etched into the plastic, almost invisible, and sold out of a warehouse a few miles from me. $35 all told. Thanks to all, especially Doriel.

(Dell’s 5-year old 1100-cycle batt in this laptop had the _cells_ made in Japan, but the batt _assembled_ in China.)

Ran it through the initial charge to 100% and down to 20% twice as per good practice with a new batt, and it seems to be holding up pretty nicely so far. Passed all the tests in the Dell Diagnostics, so we’re good for form, fit and function.

I always wonder, tho, about the old batt, and Dell’s diagnostic warning that at 55% health, it was “Towards the end of it’s useful life.”

Is there a “non-useful  life”? I’d call that dead, not 54%. A little bit of Marketing push and shove? I’d say the end of a batt’s useful life would be at about 33% or 20% , not 54%.

Well, as we have the issue solved, and I have an old spare battery now, and my wallet is holiday-light to the max (or minimum), we’ll never know, as the issue went away while the old batt was still in it. Transients, sunspots, neutron rays, variations in the Earth’s magnetic field…but it probably was the old batt. I feel better having a new one. The old Dell did last a long time, though, but then I mostly run off A/C with this machine, and a great deal of those “cycles” were partials.

I’ll always wonder about that 54%, tho, and if the batts and/or circuitry are made to start acting up at that point to get you to buy a new batt before the old one goes kablooey completely.

(Sorry, but I trust Marketing as far as I can throw an anvil, having been in Engineering, and had them run everything; “What, it can’t do that? I told them it could do that! Make it do that!”) 🙂

Dilbert lives.

Win7 Pro SP1 64-bit, Dell Latitude E6330, Intel CORE i5 "Ivy Bridge", 12GB RAM, Group "0Patch", Multiple Air-Gapped backup drives in different locations. Linux Mint Greenhorn
--
"The more kinks you put in the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the pipes." -Scotty

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[fuzzmanks]

Nibbled To Death By Ducks wrote:

Well, whatever it was, a new battery seems to have fixed it. A “Poder” Non-OEM, it’s made totally in China; it’s very thinly etched into the plastic, almost invisible, and sold out of a warehouse a few miles from me. $35 all told. Thanks to all, especially Doriel.

Since you mentioned that you have a UPS.  Here is what I do to make my LT batteries last for years.  I charge the battery to 40% and then take it out for long term storage. I use a UPS on one of the battery outlets to power my laptop. That prevents the wear and tear on a battery that is trickle charged 24/7.  This has worked on the HP and Dell LT’s I have owned.  I’ve read that some LT’s won’t power up without a battery inserted. I only charge up the LT battery to full when I’m going to need it or when it’s likely we will have a power outage due to the weather. Granted a $35 battery may not be worth the trouble to do this, but a battery made in china may be safer to not be left unattended.

I use the same UPS to protect my flat screen TV and use a long extension cord over to my LT.

• This reply was modified 5 years, 2 months ago by fuzzmanks. Reason: specified "battery" instead of "it."

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