Remember that commercial in the 90’s by Dell? It was so successful that they became the largest manufacturer of desktops and laptops at the time leaving other companies to die out or be bought out! These days their laptops are everywhere especially for non-Apple users who prefer to use the Windows operating system.
The Good Ol’ Days
Back then, when laptops were first being mass produced. the batteries that came with the laptop would resemble a brick or a marker the size of the width of the laptop that would snap in place. They were externally accessible and was easily replaceable since it didn’t require any tools. Every laptop manufacturer at the time had their style of battery but it was always external. Those days are long gone and you will never be able to access the battery externally since technology demanded for more slim and lightweight devices. Batteries on laptops now require you to take apart the laptop to some extent for replacement.
My Laptop Won’t Charge or Power on
Dell laptops as well as other manufacturers of devices that run operating systems other than the Mac OS, such as Windows and Linux, don’t come with battery service messages. There are several ways to tell if your battery is failing and needs to be replaced. Quick draining batteries, charging issues, as well as physically being able to see your laptop stretching the back cover or the keyboard palmrest are indications that your battery will need to be replaced. The physical stretching of the body of the laptop is actually a result of the battery swelling and can seriously damage your laptop to the point you may need to repair other parts such as the keyboard and the back cover.
Another indication of a failing or dead battery is if it doesn’t power on after seeing your battery drain down past 5-10% as some batteries fail to wake back up after going down to 0% even while plugged into it’s charging adapter. Of course a device that absolutely does not power on even while plugged in can indicate other issues, but a battery replacement may solve the issue as long as you have been monitoring the issues as it dies.
Changing the Battery
From the outside looking in, some of these laptops look like it’ll be pretty easy to get to the inner parts of the laptop since, comparably to the Apple Macbook, most laptops nowadays use screws that use a normal Phillips head of a certain size. Honestly, as someone that have opened up many models of Dells, including from other manufacturers like HP and Google Chromebooks, these companies tend to have so many different models of different sizes and designs that it’s easy to miss hidden screws that will damage the plastic covers and parts from trying to pull apart the laptop. I would have liked to give a step-by-step approach to this but there are so many different models of these laptops that are all designed differently so research on the user’s part is heavily recommended before attempting to do anything on your own.
Purchase of the battery needed for your laptop is also not easily found by just looking it up with a model number, so you will need to actually see the battery that’s inside to find the correct battery needed to be replaced because batteries all come with different wattage and connections in specific places. Tutorials for these replacements are usually readily available on the internet, especially in video form which is highly recommended, but make sure the tutorial that you find is the exact model and matches all the screws and connections in the tutorial.
Conclusion
One part of diagnosing a failing or dead battery is to buy a new charging adapter that is original to your laptop to see if it’s simply just a bad adapter. Laptops were created for its portability so it doesn’t hurt to have a spare charger should the original fail on you. You can prevent the headache of trying to change a battery as an amateur in repairs with this simple check. If it really is a bad battery, it is recommended to do your due diligence to know exactly how to replace the battery because of the way the laptops are designed to be sleek and portable. In the process of replacement, it’s possible to cause damage to other parts that you might not notice like cables and clips that are delicate in their design. If you’re uncomfortable with the replacement you can always bring it to a repair center as they are normally a quick fix that can be done while you wait!