I've got a Dell Latitude CPI thats about 5 years old. I replaced the battery about 1-2 years ago and the battery was just fine, recently I allowed it to go into standby while on battery power and then forgot to get back to it. Now the battery is stone cold dead and dosen't appear to be taking a charge, the battery is the currant unit being sold by Dell, 66Whr, 4460mAh Li-ion. When I plug the battery in the bay the light will go green for anywhere from 2-10 seconds then start blinking yellow, I think the yellow blinking is the charger saying the battery is bad but not sure. I already bought a new batt on Ebay asnd it will be here in time for my trip but I would like to bring this batter back to life if possible for however long I can keep it around, so far I've tried shaking it (green light stayed on a little longer) and warming it under my leg (no effect) any tips are appreciated

 

Not sure about lithium batteries but with lead acid , if they get completely dead it can take high amps to get them to start to take a charge [ maybe 50 or more amps ] , the problum with what your talking about is the lithium normanly takes milli amps and then your laptop has a fixed or program charge rate .
You might try finding the smart guy at like a batteries + store or a electonic shop that has a way of having a varyable mili amp charger.
Now does that run your Cummins or what ?

 

The battery pack is toast. What it sounds like to me is the battery voltage is so low that the internal smart chip cannot communicate with the power supply on the motherboard. The power supply turns on the battery charging circuit when A/C power is applied but there's no communication from the smart chip so the motherboard flashes the error.

MikeyB

 

Dell says if the status light flashes orange or is a steady orange, the battery is depleted, and you need to plug the computer in.

Rapid flashing orange indicates defective battery (IE probably too dead for charger to detect). I think with Li-Ion batteries, if they are very discharged, they have to take a VERY low level charge for a long time, which is probably what the slower blinking orange means- so if you have the slower blink you might leave it plugged in for a few days and see what happens (my drill batteries need several days if I drain then dead-dead, and the charger flashes to indicate soft-start mode).

There is a local radio shop (does fire/rescue/police portables, light bars, car radios, base stations, cell phones) that has equipment to revive batteries here... Maybe you have something like that there?

Personally, if it were mine I'd leave it plugged in for a couple of days, and if that didn't work I'd recycle the old battery. Don't need a battery leaking, overheating, or whatever inside your computer.

 

If the battery has been on the carger for a long time, it should charge up. Remove the battery from the laptop. There are 4 little windows, and a button on one edge. Press the button, if the battery is full charges the 4 led's will light, partil charge less that 4 led's. No lit leds. battery dead. Probly battery is toast.
Most large battery stores will have a battery for the laptop.

gud luk

 

Yup this puppy is toast I think, Thanks for the responces

 

Good reading here ~ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiIon

 

I had this happen on an IBM laptop. BAsically there is a circuit in the battery that opens up if the battery gets to low. The battery is still good but the safety circuit won't let it charge since it might explode if it isn't charged extra carefully from the to-low state.

Time to buy a new battery.

Edwin

 

Yeah, I think the equipment the radio shop has basically provides charging current regardless of the internal chip, and bumps them up enough for their normal smart charger to work...

 

Many times laptop batteries can be rebuilt if they're able to hold at least a small charge before the rebuild. Once they're totally dead, the onboard circuitry is shot, and even when rebuilt with new cells, will never take a charge. Rebuilding them isn't necessarily a task you'd like to do at home.

 

We can do it in the lab, but the voltage and current draw must be watched closely since there is no thermal control without the smart chip being alive.
The newer designs we allow for this scenerio and leave the battery charging circuit on longer to get the voltage past the threshhold.

MikeyB

 

DO NOT USE HIGH CURRENT CHARGING ON THAT LIPO BATTERY. I've used them for years in r/c vehicles and the absoloute worst thing you can do is use too much current. Well, the worst thing is overvoltage, but overcurrent is just as bad. They will EXPLODE violently and burn at several thousand degrees. I know, I've done it.. once. The most you're supposed to charge LIPO at is 1c. Which means if it's a 4,660mah pack like I read earlier, you can charge it at 4.6 amps MAX. I tried doign slightly over current to charge them, and fried a 200 dollar pack.