I've got my Inspiron 5150 thirteen months ago. I just measured how many hours and mins my battery last per one full charge, The result turned out to be appx 2.5 hours. The battery life was about 3 hours when brand new, and Dell claimed, was up to 4 hours.

I made a critical mistake as a result of my ignorance. I didn't know I could run the laptop using directly main power via the AC adapter. So throughout the one-year heavy use mostly on my desk, I had the battery kept inside the laptop. However, I was aware however the battery life would be shortened if it got continously charged. I always unpluged the AC adapter when fully charged and pluged it back when the battery ran out.

According to the below Dell KB, the type of the battery I have gets max 500 charges. Well, knowing no too much I can do at this point, I would appreciate you tell me "How many hours your battery lasts after one year you've got Inspiron?"
Dell's KB about battery lives:
http://www1.us.dell.com/content/le [...] ab=details

I did a couple of tests while working on non-system-intensive apps. My battery lasted about 2.5 hrs before the battery meter hit 3% and went stand-by. Mine was always set 15% before the alarm popped up.

Another question is about dust-control actually. I am a clean-freak Taking out the battery opens a big door on my Inspiron. Is there any way, I can minimize the dust being sucked into the Inspiron? I will use the laptop mostly using main eletricity power without the battery since it is too heady for me to carry around...

/PT<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by palmtree on 11/12/04 12:49 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

lithium-ion batteries have no memory effect.

<font color=red><pre>_____________________________________
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

This is perfectly fine - if anyone tells you otherwise, they should be slapped with a large, yet firm fish. Once the battery is charged, it is disconnected and your notebook only runs off of the mains (it does this via integrated circuitry)

...which cannot happen, for the reasons described above.

Now THAT is what caused your battery to lose life - a Dell Li-Ion battery only has about 300 - 400 charge/discharge cycles before it starts losing its ability to hold a charge. Furthermore, while Li-Ion batteries may not develope "memory" as such, if you let the battery reach 0% (i.e. completely discharge), you risk inducing a negative charge upon the cells, thus permanantly damaging them.

It depends on how much you've used it - if you charge and discharge it once every day then the battery should last about 18months.

My Latitude D800 battery used to last about 4hours - but it now only lasts about 40 minutes before reaching 80% whereafter it rapidly discharges to zero in about 10 minutes flat after that.

I am having the battery repacked with higher capacity cells and the Dell circuitry removed (circuitry which causes the battery to die after a certain amount of time/usage giving Dell assured income of users purchasing additional batteries) - which will hold 30% more charge, and, ironically enough, is cheaper than purchasing a new one from Dell... *sigh*

Don't take out the battery. There is no need.

Regards,
RaPTuRe

Who's General Failure and why's he reading my disk?