Why does my Laptop battery die so quick?

[Losiracer2]

I'm kinda annoyed at my Dell Inspiron 6000. Well moreso at the battery. My batt. life doesn't last longer than 1.5 hrs after it's fully charged and it gets REALLY hot underneath. For all you computer whizzes, is this normal? I purchased it back in Aug 05' NEW, so do you think it could be the age of the battery causing it to die so quick? As far as I know, its the standard batt. nothing was upgraded at the time I got it.

Or what could be my options? Its still under warranty til Aug 09', so do you think I should complain to Dell and say my Batt. is defective? or is that normal for it to die w/in 1.5 hrs while in fully dim mode and about 1hr 10 min in fully bright mode?

On my friend's HP, his laptop will run for HOURS after a full charge. So i'm kinda mad that mine doesn't.

[C91BLX7]

Its going to explode!

[Losiracer2]

Its going to explode!

yeah I hope mine isn't under a recall for ^^^ that. But I also use my chillpad when its off the AC power and that drains it even more! so idk, I hate my damn battery.

[nine_deuce]

Heat will kill your battery. My brother had a Dell, his would last for hours, I had an HP *the exact opposite of your situation* mine would get hot, it shut off a few times due to heat, but, my battery wouldn't last for nothing

[accordaffair]

Best thing is to kill anything zapping the processor and turn the display brightness down as much as you can tolerate, it nearly doubled my use life

[Dr.x]

my brand new satalite 350d .. the battery life isnt too shabby.. but not the greatest.. maybe an 1h/1h30 on reduced power.. everything down

[Law Grandeur]

probably dusty or old or you overcharge it too much

[eriemoto.]

do you leave it plugged in to the outlet all the time? that causes the battery to lose it's holding power. my dell laptop now HAS to be plugged in an outlet or it wont power up.

[Losiracer2]

do you leave it plugged in to the outlet all the time? that causes the battery to lose it's holding power. my dell laptop now HAS to be plugged in an outlet or it wont power up.

yeah whenever its not being used, its plugged into the power supply. My laptop is basically my one computer I use to do everything, so when I'm at home, its plugged in. When I'm at college, I have it unplugged....until the batt. dies w/in no time at all.

But you think Dell will warranty my battery out if I call tech support and complain about it?

[vietkid_2006]

your lucky your battery still charges! my charger just took a crap on my this week 60-90 dollars for a new one from toshiba.

lol but it depends on when you bought it how long it says it will stay on with a full charged battery. my laptop is a budget laptop and it gets around 1hr 30 mins or more if doing minimal things on the laptop

[Losiracer2]

your lucky your battery still charges! my charger just took a crap on my this week 60-90 dollars for a new one from toshiba.

lol but it depends on when you bought it how long it says it will stay on with a full charged battery. my laptop is a budget laptop and it gets around 1hr 30 mins or more if doing minimal things on the laptop

hmm wow, either the new laptops are amazingly efficient or my batt. is just used up. Yeah I guess using wireless all the time is what eats the batt. up. But how else am I gonna get access to the internetz lol. But its like my cooling fan never shuts off, its been going on High for about an hour or two now, nonstop...even w/ the chillpad I've got underneath it.

[Law Grandeur]

thats just how they are. they heat up quickly. like i said if they are old, dusty, or overcharged they crap out. pffft its like my old modem. shit over heats like crazy so i have to put a fan on it like a ps2 slim LOL

[Phempa]

you still get 1.5 hours out of a 4 year old laptop battery?? thats actually really good!!!

My sony is like 6 months old, and i can only get about 2 hours on a full charge.... unless I turn the screen down all the way... then it's more like 3 hrs, 15 mins.

I've seen 2 year old laptops only have 45 mins on a full charge... like my mothers Acer Aspire. I don't suggest them if battery life is a concern to you.

[Leung]

i bet if i tweak my settings, i could get more than an hour's worth of play time on my Toshiba.

[NutBucket]

you still get 1.5 hours out of a 4 year old laptop battery?? thats actually really good!!!

My sony is like 6 months old, and i can only get about 2 hours on a full charge.... unless I turn the screen down all the way... then it's more like 3 hrs, 15 mins.

I've seen 2 year old laptops only have 45 mins on a full charge... like my mothers Acer Aspire. I don't suggest them if battery life is a concern to you.

Agreed. You should be lucky with such and old battery. Lithium batteries have a set number of discharge/charge cycles....once you've exceeded maybe 300 to 400 cycles its all downhill from there. Time to bite the bullet and either get a new battery or get a new laptop.

If its getting hotter than usual you may want to clean out the air passages, heatsinks and fans. Chances are they're full of dust.