Check the Battery
Health
NOTE:
You can check battery health in one of two ways: by using the charge gauge on the battery as
described
below and by using the Battery Meter in Dell QuickSet. For information about QuickSet, right-click the
QuickSet
icon in the Microsoft® Windows® taskbar, and click
Help
.
To
check
the
battery health using
the
charge gauge,
press and hold
the
status
button on the battery
charge gauge
for at
least
3
seconds.
If no
lights appear,
the
battery is
in
good
condition,
and more
than 80
percent
of its
original charge capacity remains. Each
light
represents incremental degradation.
If five
lights
appear, less
than
60 percent
of the
charge capacity remains, and you should consider replacing
the
battery. See
"Specifications"
on
page 131
for
more
information
about
the
battery operating
time.
Low-Battery
Warning
NOTICE:
To
avoid losing or corrupting data, save your work immediately after
a
low-battery warning. Then
connect
the computer to an electrical outlet.
If
the battery runs completely out of power, hibernate mode
begins
automatically
.
By default, a pop-up window warns you when
the
battery charge is approximately 90 percent
depleted.
You can change
the
settings
for the
battery alarms
in
QuickSet
or the
Power
Options
Properties
window.
See
"Configuring
Power Management Settings"
on
page 33
for information
about accessing QuickSet
or
the
Power
Options
Properties
window.
Conserving Battery
Power
Perform
the following
action
s
to
conserve battery
power:
•
Connect
the
computer
to
an electrical
outlet
when possible because battery
life
is largely
determined
by
the
number
of
times
the
battery is used and
r
e
char
ged.
•
Place
the
computer
in
standby mode
or
hibernate mode when you leave
the
computer unattended
for
long periods
of time
(see "Power Management Modes" on page
31).
•
Use the Power Management
Wizard
to
select options
to
optimize your computer’s power
usage.
These
options can also be set
to
change when you press
the
power
button,
close
the
display,
or
pr
ess
<Fn><Esc>.
NOTE:
See "Power Management Modes" on page
31
for more information on conserving battery power
.
Power Management
Modes
Standby
Mode
Standby mode conserves power by
turning off the
display and
the
hard drive
after
a
predetermined
period
of inactivity (a time-out). When the
computer exits standby mode,
it
returns
to the same
operating state
it
was
in
before entering standby
mode.
NOTICE:
If
your computer loses AC and battery power while in standby mode,
it
may lose
data.
To
enter standby
mode:
Using
a
Battery
31
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