Battery shows fully discharged when it isn't

Does this link show a solution? www.dell.com/support/article/en-us/sln292953/how-to-troubleshoot-dell-laptop-battery-issues?lang=en

Still exhibiting this behavior.

More info:
When battery icon shows 0%, battery leds show fully charged, but running Dell battery diagnostics indicated battery life test failed. ePSA diagnostics similarly state battery cannot supply sufficient power (Error Code 2000-0133). But after I shut laptop down and restart, battery icon shows battery fully charged, and the diagnostic tests above show no problems.

I'm trying this and will let you know how it turns out. Another symptom I wasn't aware of earlier (this is my wife's laptop) is that, while it's plugged in and she is in the middle of an operation, the low battery warning will suddenly come on and the laptop will turn off with no further warning.

Hi risman,

Since the problem exhibits itself only when the battery is plugged in, then:

1 - The battery is bad

OR

2 – Wrong battery - Since this is a replaced battery, is it the correct replacement (this includes how it communicates with the PC)?

OR

3 – Electronic charging components in the laptop are malfunctioning.

The first step is to determine if the battery is bad or not. Fortunately, Windows provides some help with this. Windows keeps track of the battery and all you have to do is ask and Windows will provide a detailed report on your battery. What follows is the command to have Windows create a report on monitoring of that battery since it was installed. Data in that report will give us insight on the condition of the battery.


How to Create a PC Battery Report
1️⃣ Open a Command Prompt in Admin mode (WinKey + R, type in cmd, hold Shift & Ctrl keys down and press Enter key, Yes to UAC query)
2️⃣ Enter the following command at the prompt and press the Enter key. Replace the underscore (_) with a space:

powercfg_/batteryreport

3️⃣ This will create the report as a html file named battery-report.html. It will be placed in the C:\WINDOWS\system32 folder.

This html file will have your default browser icon and will open in that browser.


Reviewing the Battery Report

Open the report in your default browser (I use Chrome).
Starting from the top:

Computer info

Installed Batteries – the laptop will keep track of all batteries installed on it and label them battery 1, battery 2, etc. Each battery listed will have the name of the battery and the manufacturer to help you identify the battery number of battery in question and thus review the data on that battery and not a prior battery.

For the battery in question (most likely battery 2) under the Name look at the values for Design Capacity and Full Charge Capacity. Full Charge will usually be less than Design, but should only be slightly less than Design. A battery whose Full Charge Capacity is less than 90% of the Design Capacity (more than 10% difference) is not being able to fully charge, which means the battery is bad and doesn’t have long to live. I’m interested in these values for this battery. The auto shut off system bases its calculations on these values and if they are entered wrong, they won’t function properly and not read the battery charge correctly.

Below the Capacity numbers should be Cycle Count. This should not be an issue with a recently replaced battery, but for other readers and completeness....most laptop batteries start to fail soon after reaching 500 recharge cycles.

Battery Usage- This helps follow the usage of the battery over time. The key is to note the Battery Capacity History. This allows you to view the drop of Full Charge Capacity over time. The drop should be gradual and uniform. If the amount of drop in capacity suddenly increases, then the battery hasn’t long to live.

Review this and review the report. I’ll be here for any questions.