Dell XPS 14 Battery Life:For the typical user, noticeable reduction in run time generally will be observed after 18 to 24 months.

DELL XPS SERIES    

Tag#:  XPS 14-L421X, XPS 14 Ultrabook

Battery display:

Question:

Hi All,

one year back I bought a DELL XPS 14 (L421x)Laptop with Windows 8. I had question about the quickly deteriorating battery.

I have installed Linux on my machine and was observing the battery status. In the fields "Energy when full" it is showing as 45W, while the design energy is 69W.

What is worrying me is, this number is reducing rapidly! (2 days back, it was 65.8W)

I also verified this by booting into Windows and launching the powercfg --energy command and checking the report it generated. The "Last full charge capacity" is exactly same as what was shown on Linux.

Wonder if this is actually a Battery problem or some kind of BIOS/SW issue. Is anyone facing the same problem?

Thanks,

Sharath

Shopbattery.ca   Support:

Hi Sharath

All rechargeable batteries wear out with time and usage. As time and cumulative use increase, the performance will degrade. The battery operating time is largely determined by the number of times it is charged. After hundreds of charge and discharge cycles, batteries lose some charge capacity (battery health). This means that a battery can show a charged status, but maintain a reduced charge capacity. 

You may check the battery health in BIOS. Please follow the steps below:

• Restart / Power on your computer.
• At the Dell logo appears, tap <F2> until the message Entering Setup appears.
• Scroll to the ‘Advanced’ tab.
• Look under battery health, it should say ‘This battery is performing normally’. If there is any other message, it could mean that the battery is faulty and needs replacement.

Keep me posted with the results. I will be glad to assist further.