serious battery loss Dell X5

[robert_uk]

hi. had my dell for a few months now, and have probably put up with this issue for far too long - battery drain !
i dont use this thing very much, just adding calendar entries, checking addresses, that kind of thing, low useage. now battery pack has always given me what i would imagine to be a fast battery drain. e.g. this morning, flicked on to check meetings, reading 27% charged, off straightaway, flicked on, added a new meeting, now 18%, off, flicked off to add another meeting, now says 9%, off straightaway.

is this kind of thing abnormal ? i thought the axim could do 10 hours or something between charging. or does battery pack report the battery life incorrectly ? it goes from 100 to 90 to 80 etc pretty quickly too, it's just not for the low numbers.

thanks
robert

[Mitch D]

That is strange, the battery meters have always been an estimate of battery power left. If it's still under warranty I would call Dell and have them deal with it rather than you worrying about it.

[PetiteFlower]

Do you regularly let the battery drain very low? That can kill your battery very quickly. It's not normal for it to drop so quickly but you should never let it get to 27% if you can help it. If you do that a lot, that could certainly explain why it can't hold a charge anymore. But, you could probably still get Dell to replace it for free under warantee.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I say send it back. I've had my Axim since April of 2003 and rarely get the battery down to 45%. Seems like a defective battery to me.

Make sure, though, as others have said, that you don't let it run down low on a regular basis because that will kill your battery.

[shawnc]

are you using an aftermarket sync/charge cable? i can'tremember the brand, but this caused my axim to drain the battery very quickly. threw the cable in the trash and haven't had any problems since.

[robert_uk]

no, all authentic dell charger etc
got home, connected to the charger, switched on, what does battery pack say ? 62%
i wish it would make up its mind !
now 73% after maybe 20 minutes.

so i dont habitually let it drain low, it just seems to report itself as being low.
think i need to keep the charger with me at work !

[PetiteFlower]

Could be faulty software too, does the built in battery meter agree with what battery pack says?

[minimage]

Are you using the cradle or the usb cable?

[robert_uk]

i don't use either the cradle or usb cable. very occasionally the cradle to add software, but that's really a rarity.
i use the mains charger to keep the battery topped up.
battery pack and built in meter now both say 100% - left it charging overnight, but it said 100% after i would guess an hour / hour and a half.
i suppose i could experiment by using it continuously, and see how long it lasts. just ordered a compact flash wifi card, so will be "playing" with that when it arrives, setting it up with my home wireless network, and then more "playing".
guess will have to monitor more closely.
maybe it's like cars - it's better for the car to drive 50 miles a day rather than just 1 mile a day.

[lilleninni]

make sure you close every program before you press the off button as well, the off button does not really turn the axim off, only the screen... that means programs keep running in the background, draining your battery even when you don't actually use the axim... there are a few freeware apps out there that make open programs stick to the top of the screen like the tool bar in windows, that way you can see what programs you still need to close...

lilleninni

[PetiteFlower]

The Axim comes with task switching software that you can use to close programs. I use Pocket Plus too to make the X button functional. But having programs running shouldn't make the battery drain that much quicker. It doesn't just turn off the screen it puts the device in standby mode so while things are still open, they're not actively running.

Anyway keep in mind that Wifi drains a battey very fast.

But if you are getting down to 20%, or even 60%, after only one day of sporadic use, then something is DEFINITELY wrong with your battery. Call tech support for a replacement unit--make sure you back up first!

[robert_uk]

i would complain if dell webpage actually works !
not only does it say my service tag is invalid, when i submit using another service tag number (which seems to be accepted) i get "An error occured in processing your request. "

hmmm, not very good, really.

battery was 66% this morning, then said 75% soon after.

now on hold to technical support .........