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Vostro 1400 battery light flash code: meaning?
I have an olde Vostro 1400 which I powered up today to do somestuff.
On powerup the on-screen battery status showed "27%, charging" and the power/battery LED was solid blue. Later I went to recheck the status and it said "3%, charging" - which was weird. So I powered it off to give the recharge a free shot. Later, the LED is blinking a pattern - four short orange then a long blue. Nowhere in the 145 pages of manual does it spell out flash codes. Quick press on the battery pack status button lights no LEDs (aka flat) but a long press/hold ("health check") also shows no LEDs aka no loss of condition. I'm confused by the contradictory info and the lack of a flash code explanation anywhere. Does anyone have any further insight (other than "your battery's probably shot")? |
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Vostro 1400 battery light flash code: meaning?
pedro wrote:
I have an olde Vostro 1400 which I powered up today to do somestuff. On powerup the on-screen battery status showed "27%, charging" and the power/battery LED was solid blue. Later I went to recheck the status and it said "3%, charging" - which was weird. So I powered it off to give the recharge a free shot. Later, the LED is blinking a pattern - four short orange then a long blue. Nowhere in the 145 pages of manual does it spell out flash codes. Quick press on the battery pack status button lights no LEDs (aka flat) but a long press/hold ("health check") also shows no LEDs aka no loss of condition. I'm confused by the contradictory info and the lack of a flash code explanation anywhere. Does anyone have any further insight (other than "your battery's probably shot")? I think 4 amber/orange - 1 blue means "battery overheat" If the battery isn't hot then the sensor inside has likely failed and you need a new battery. You could try a trick - Take the battery out, toss it in a baggie and into the freezer for an hour or so. Bring it out and wipe it off. re-install it and see if it charges. -- Steve W. |
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Vostro 1400 battery light flash code: meaning?
On Sat, 22 Nov 2014 15:58:59 -0500, "Steve W."
wrote: I think 4 amber/orange - 1 blue means "battery overheat" If the battery isn't hot then the sensor inside has likely failed and you need a new battery. You could try a trick - Take the battery out, toss it in a baggie and into the freezer for an hour or so. Bring it out and wipe it off. re-install it and see if it charges. That didn't work, unfortunately. After deep digging on Dell's website (which isn't a shadow of its former self) all I found was downloadable/interactive diagnostic tests. The main PCdoctor-based one never completed, always timing out after exactly five minutes. One of the other ones though gave the following disturbing info: Sunday, 7 December 2014 12:09:01 AM Product Version: 3.5.6426.22 Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery Battery Name: DELL MN1278 Manufacturer Name: Panasonic Type: LION - Lithium Ion Current Charge Percentage: 0 Designed Capacity Percentage: 88 Charge Status: No Activity Current Charge: 0.00 Wh Full Charged Capacity: 49.43 Wh Designed Capacity: 56.61 Wh Voltage: 4.96 V What you post has done though is reinforce my view that somewhere, sometime those flash codes were documented and available. At this stage the lappie doesn't justify expenditure on a new battery if that isn't the fault (i.e an on-board failure), and my leaning is the charging circuit itself. I base this view on the fact that it keeps reporting"0%, charging" when it isn't, so I figure that its sensing of charging is upstream of the problem. If the battery went into UVLO first, I would have expected that report to be different. |
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