Laptop Battery Level dropping like a stone.

Mitch · Mar 5, 2025

Hi. We have a Dell laptop which is around 2 years old. The device is only lightly used and the battery report still shows 94% capacity. The battery level drops normally to around 50% but then drops quickly to 4% and the laptop shuts down. I've tried calibrating the battery by fully charging and discharging twice but the problem still happens. Dell doesn't provide a calibration tool so charge/discharge is the only option.
I'm also told that the battery in this model (16 5625) isn't user replaceable and a chargeable service visit. Is needed. I would appreciate any advice on how to calibrate this battery other than what I've tried. Thanks very much.

Berton · Mar 5, 2025

Have you kept the Dell SupportAssist program on the computer? Or the MyDell app that can show something about the power?
Dell Support pages about the Inspiron 16 Notebook:

Computer Won't Turn On: Troubleshoot Power Issues | Dell US

Support for Inspiron 16 5625 | Overview | Dell US

The battery is a gel-pac, harder to replace but not impossible, just have to remove part of the case.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=dell+inspiron+16+5625+battery&crid=1X57HMP64QY1P&sprefix=dell+inspiron+16+5625+battery%2Caps%2C207&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_29

P.S. I have Dells with both types of batteries used in Notebooks.

Mitch · Mar 5, 2025

Hi Berton. Yes we have both Supportassist and My Dell apps on the PC. MyDell says battery health is excellent and the charging is set to Custom. The battery seems to be in good health but the battery level isn't being read properly. Thanks.

spapakons · Mar 6, 2025

The charging pattern should be set in BIOS. Open BIOS (F2 at boot) and see the power section.

K7MEM · Mar 6, 2025

Batteries wear out, even after light use. I have a HP laptop. When plugged in, it always sits at 100% charge. However, I disconnect it from the main supply regularly during the day. Normally, it's good for about 4 or 5 hours. But when it starts to discharge quickly, I simply replace the battery. So far, I have replaced two batteries on this laptop. The laptop works great, but not the batteries. For me, it's easy to tell when the battery goes bad. An area on my keyboard starts to get warm and one half of the battery expands to twice it size.

spapakons · Mar 6, 2025

K7MEM said:
Batteries wear out, even after light use. I have a HP laptop. When plugged in, it always sits at 100% charge. However, I disconnect it from the main supply regularly during the day. Normally, it's good for about 4 or 5 hours. But when it starts to discharge quickly, I simply replace the battery. So far, I have replaced two batteries on this laptop. The laptop works great, but not the batteries. For me, it's easy to tell when the battery goes bad. An area on my keyboard starts to get warm and one half of the battery expands to twice it size.

That's why on refurbished laptops the Warranty is 1-2 years for the laptop but only 6 months for the battery. Even when you buy a new battery it has 6 months Warranty, 1 year if you are lucky or it is rather expensive.

Steve C · Friday at 1:56 AM

If you replace the battery try to buy the Dell OEM version if available. Most of the third party batteries on Amazon etc are cheap Chinese tat and don't last long.

spapakons · Friday at 2:31 AM

Steve C said:
If you replace the battery try buy the Dell OEM version if available. Most of the third party batteries on Amazon etc are cheap Chinese tat and don't last long.

If they last at least a year is preferable to pay less than half the cost for a Dell battery which live less than two years, probably just one. I never buy a genuine battery for an old laptop, it's not worth it.

x509 · Saturday at 12:28 AM

Steve C said:
If you replace the battery try to buy the Dell OEM version if available. Most of the third party batteries on Amazon etc are cheap Chinese tat and don't last long.

I had the same experience buying chinesium batteries for 2 different Lenovo laptops. One battery basically failed after 4 months of light use. Waste of money and the time to install the new battery.

And I bought those two batt4eries because I couldn't find OEM batteries listed on the Lenovo website.

Mooly · Saturday at 12:57 AM

I have a Dell (2.5 yrs old) and had a similar issue in its first few months. It would fall from around 50% to zero in around 10 minutes. Mine doesn't have the Dell app installed as one of the first things I did was to clean install W11 and get rid of all that stuff... however... you mention a custom profile is set. As @spapakons mentions, all this stuff is actually in the BIOS and the app is simply a bloatware interface (imo).

I would make sure the battery charge profile is set to charge to 100% at this point and is not set to anything that tries to anticipate usage or times of day you use it on battery etc. If it is set to 'Custom' it sounds like it is doing something other than this.

Having done that use it on battery for a few charge and discharge cycles and see if it recovers to something more normal.

On mine I have the battery charge limit set in the BIOS to 85% as a cut off point as I rarely use battery power and it is beneficial to the battery not to sit at 100% all the time.

Also make sure the BIOS is up to date.

Mitch · Saturday at 2:11 AM

Thanks very much for the replies. The BIOS settings reflect the MyDell power app settings. I use the MyDell app for convenience. The "Custom" setting is to begin charging when the battery % falls below 95% and stop at 100% - it can't be set any higher than 95%.There are other settings - Adaptive, Standard and Always AC Power. Custom seems to charge the battery to 100% but I'm not sure what the other settings do so I chose that one. Thanks again.

spapakons · Saturday at 3:55 AM

Start charging at 95% means the battery is constantly charging when connected to the AC adapter and is screwed. I would let it fall and charge below 20% or when I get the respective warning from Windows.

Mooly · Saturday at 5:40 AM

This is what I see in the BIOS. I do have custom settings applied because that is what I want but you should look to see if you have something like this Standard Option that will fully charge the battery to 100%.

If you have other options such as these then make sure they are set as you want and initially I would say set them to OFF so that you can get a 100% charge to the battery.

Mitch · Saturday at 9:56 AM

I think what's needed is a proper calibration tool for Dell laptops. The HP laptop we have has a calibration tool built in to UEFI Diagnostics. Before that the way to completely discharge the battery to 0% was run the memory test and loop to error in pre Windows diagnostics. As far as Dell is concerned I can't let the battery fall to 0% in Windows as the Critical Battery/Shut Down level can't be turned off. I think the only solution is drain the battery outside of Windows but I can't see any options. Thanks.

Mooly · Saturday at 11:56 AM

Would running the battery down to close to its shutdown point and then you restarting and booting into the BIOS work. That should drain the battery but I'm not a fan of going so far as to drain it to zero. That should not be needed. Down to say 10% should suffice.

I'm on a different PC just now but Power Options in Control Panel let you set shutdown points.

spapakons · Saturday at 1:01 PM

I have set the critical battery level in my laptop to 5%. I hardly have any time to plug the charger when I see the warning but the battery goes as close to 0 as possible. It is OK if it goes under 10% before charging. It doesn't have to be absolutely 0. Mine lasted about 6 hours while watching video (two batteries, one inside and one at the docking station). After some years it now lasts over 4 hours. Not bad.

Mitch · Saturday at 1:59 PM

Thanks very much. I've got the Critical Battery Level set at 5% and the laptop shuts down when it reaches this. TBH I would prefer to use AC power all the time but I'm aware of opinions that say it's bad for Battery health to keep it at 100% all the time. If I set the maximum charge to say 80% and used AC power most of the time is it still bad for Battery health or does that only apply to 100,%? I'd be interested to know.

spapakons · Saturday at 2:42 PM

It is still bad, but does fewer damage to the battery than keep it always 100%. Why don't you just use the battery for a couple of hours and plug the charger when 20% or less? You don't even need to do that. Just connect the charger to a socket with on/off switch and leave it plugged. You just switch off the socket and let the battery drop and switch it on to charge.

spapakons · Saturday at 2:43 PM

By the way, is there a power bank suitable to charge a laptop battery? It would be handy when traveling, although I imagine it might be bulky and heavy...

Mooly · Saturday at 2:52 PM

Mitch said:
If I set the maximum charge to say 80% and used AC power most of the time is it still bad for Battery health or does that only apply to 100,%? I'd be interested to know.

You will find a lot of sometimes contradictory information on batteries and charging.

When the battery reaches 100% SoC (state of charge) the charging actually stops completely and the battery then sits there at 100% and over the coming days and weeks loses a little charge continuously. What you see is that 100% SoC fall to say 99% after 4 or 5 days and then 98% and so on. When it reaches say 96% it will automatically trigger the charge controller to bring it back to 100%.

The issue with leaving Lithium Ion type cells at this 100% level 24/7 is that it accelerates degradation of the cell. I use 85% as a max level but you will find other varying references, some a bit higher, some quite a bit lower.

If you use AC power most of the time it is beneficial to 'exercise' the battery every now and then (every 2 or 3 weeks) and to let it discharge to around 25%. Over discharging on a regular basis isn't recommended but having said that occasionally (as in your case) you need to fully charge to 100% and run it down to say 10% and do that 3 or 4 times over a week or so. Having done that and assuming all is well reset the charge cutoff to something lower than 100% such as 80 or 85%.

Laptop Battery Level dropping like a stone.

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