Dell Xps 15 Replacement Battery Swelling Again
Lithium-ion batteries pack an astonishing punch for their size. They're robust plenty to run our laptops for hours on a single charge, at the core of the latest smartphones, and even serve every bit the ability found behind cutting-edge electric vehicles like the Tesla family. Just lithium-ion batteries practice have their limits, and given how powerful laptops have go in the last few years, we're relying on our machines for longer than e'er. And that has implications for batteries: They're in service for longer than ever, too. And sometimes, that means they prove the limits of the technology.
Y'all may well have had this happen to y'all: A laptop or phone you lot've had for years of a sudden stops working, or perchance just starts showing some sign of internal physical swelling. The screen of your phone starts bulging out, or its seams open up, or your laptop keyboard grows an cruddy burl. That could exist due to a large bubble that may have gradually, or suddenly, arisen in your bombardment. But why does this happen, and what tin can you exercise about information technology?
We talked with some engineers and experts from computer manufacturers and related companies to dig into what you need to know virtually swollen batteries, and what to do if yous have i.
What Causes My Bombardment to Neat?
Bloated batteries are the result of two things: energy density and heat. The swelling is the outcome of too much current coursing, in a noncontrolled fashion, inside a cell of the battery, which causes a build-up of heat and gas. This happens equally the materials within a battery disuse or are subjected to stress or physical damage over time.
A given laptop bombardment is fabricated up of several discrete cells, and bug can ascend in simply one, or more than than one, of them. You'll often see laptop batteries described as, for example, four-cell or 6-cell, indicating the internal structure of the battery. (Some laptops, ordinarily business organisation models, give you a pick of battery capacity/cell count at fourth dimension of purchase, but that is less common than in the past.) The fact that laptops seldom come with removable batteries anymore (in the sense of, you tin swap them in and out without opening upward the chassis) exacerbates the problem.
Bloated battery (right) versus new power pack (Photo: Tony Hoffman)
"The reason why these batteries swell is because the electrolyte that separates the layers between the wrap degrades, and when that degrades, it changes into gas," says Arthur Shi, lead technical writer at iFixit.com. "Now that the electrolyte is degraded, things are no longer insulated and then they start shorting, and that causes a hot spot later. That can eventually cause it to do a thermal runaway, which means it tin even starting time a fire."
The near common cause of a bloated bombardment is overcharging. Keeping your battery at a high state of charge, co-ordinate to Shi, can stress information technology out, assuasive it to dethrone faster.
"In an application where you have a arrangement plugged in 24/7, after a number of years your likelihood of getting a swollen battery increases," says Phil Jakes, principal engineer and director of strategic engineering at Lenovo. "The other affair that drives it is heat. Batteries don't like to be hot, and there's a chemical process that gets kicked off when a battery gets over 100 degrees."
Some other common cause is mechanical damage to the battery. That might be caused by a accident to the laptop itself, or damage washed when changing out it (or messing with other components around it). Striking a hard surface and denting the casing tin can cause a swelling condition, every bit can exposure to excessively high temperatures. Also, impairment inflicted to the exterior of your device can transfer to the battery and crusade it to overheat and corking.
Signs of a Swollen Battery
At present, the signs may be subtle, or incommunicable to ignore. Equally the battery expands, your device might slowly change shape. For case, your laptop keyboard could beginning protruding, or you may discover your device is suddenly wobbly when you lay information technology on a flat surface, with the lower part of the chassis a chip distended if you lot look at it on border. Or it might be something merely as mystifying equally certain keyboard keys condign hard to button.
If your laptop is easy to open up (in other words, it has unproblematic screws on the underside of the chassis), you can take off the lesser embrace and, in many cases, bank check out the battery'due south physical state that way. If information technology looks puffy or rounded, that likely ways it'south bloated. Near important: When inspecting if your bombardment is bloated, go on with circumspection, as the cells are under force per unit area. Article of clothing eye protection and don't poke or pry at the cells.
This swollen battery actually caused the touchpad to bulge from this laptop'south keyboard deck. (Photo: Tony Hoffman)
A bloated battery isn't always immediately obvious when it happens, or at the onset. It depends on how much room it has to expand inside the laptop chassis. With thin laptops, that's ordinarily fiddling or none. The size of swelled battery can vary from a small bump to one big enough to turn your laptop into a seesaw, or even pop out the touchpad. (Yep, we've seen that.)
How Do I Fix and Forbid a Swollen Battery?
Once a battery starts jutting, it may well continue working, at lesser efficiency. Or your laptop may simply keep working when on the AC plug, but dice rapidly off-plug or ability down as before long equally the cord is pulled. Ultimately, don't ignore it; sooner or later, the bombardment will no longer work properly, and once swelling starts, information technology cannot be reversed. Your only solution is to replace the battery.
Of course, there are ways, co-ordinate to the experts we talked with, to prevent this from happening again, or in the first place:
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Don't continue your device plugged in all the time. Batteries are cyclical and have to discharge and recharge to work effectively.
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Keep your laptop in absurd, dry environments. Hot and humid weather conditions put more strain on batteries and can shorten their operating life over time.
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When buying a new battery, buy from reputable manufacturers. Information technology'due south more often than not best to buy a replacement from the original laptop maker than the cheapest compatible option from a third political party.
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Replace your bombardment if it becomes quondam or exhausted, and if the laptop makes it possible to bandy it out yourself. Manufacturers examination their batteries to last upward to three or four years, and in a perfect earth, batteries wouldn't dethrone, simply they do. If y'all start to meet the signs of a damaged, swelling, or wearied battery (in the concluding instance, it only holds charge for a short fourth dimension), supervene upon it now rather than subsequently.
Information technology's non all doom and gloom. Manufacturers such every bit Dell and Lenovo have been working on smart battery technology in their laptops for years now, allowing the battery to proceed track of its usage throughout the twenty-four hour period to avoid overcharging.
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Take, for example, Dell. "The battery is continuously monitoring how you utilize your system, and information technology volition place you in these different modes," says Rick C. Thompson, a distinguished engineer and engineering science strategist at Dell. "If the user allows united states to command the battery using context-based charging, we won't accuse it fully. We accuse information technology to fourscore% to ninety% full, and only top it up before the outset of the adjacent solar day."
How Tin can I Supervene upon My Laptop Battery?
Battery accessibility in modernistic laptops (that is, the ability to get inside the case and supersede the battery) is a very mixed pocketbook. Near laptops are built differently from 1 another inside, in subtle variations, and some simply come with batteries that are non-replaceable considering the chassis is designed not to be opened. With Apple's MacBooks, some ultrabooks running Windows (notably, some of Microsoft's Surface Laptop models), and some Chromebooks, batteries you just can't access to replace are sometimes a thing. So the first step is talking with your laptop's tech support to see what your options are. If your battery begins to swell, the fourth dimension to act is now.
When assessing the situation of your swollen bombardment, go through these steps:
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Assess whether you can even access the battery yourself. Contact the laptop manufacturer's support line or online resources for your product to ask about your options through "official" channels. Some popular models have have (unofficial) online tutorials that show the battery-replacement process, too.
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Wait into warranty coverage, and whether any however applies. (Unless you paid for an extended warranty, several years into ownership the answer is probably "no.") Annotation that if y'all are confident enough to try do a bombardment swap yourself, doing then may void the warranty, if any of it is left. Besides, sometimes a laptop'southward bombardment is covered past a shorter warranty than the main laptop itself.
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Be realistic about what you need to get the job done. If you desire to make an endeavour to set information technology yourself, don't effort and do information technology with just any old tools. You might need a special screwdriver or ii (star-head screws are common on laptops), and sites like iFixit sell special tool kits for Macs and other machines. A bloated battery tin be the kiss of decease for some laptops, depending on the product and manufacturer. "Batteries can have either a UL listing or a rating that determines whether they are client-service- or client-technician-serviceable," says Thompson.
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And most of import: At the kickoff sign of battery swelling, back up any crucial data ASAP, and terminate using the laptop.
What Should I Do With My Swollen Battery?
The but thing to exercise with your one-time, bloated battery is dispose of information technology. With lithium-ion batteries, you lot should proceed with caution, and then as to not puncture the battery when treatment it or removing it from your PC. Never pry at the bombardment with metal tools, or flex it in a swollen land. (A metal tool could pierce the outer skin and starting time a chemical reaction; we've done that by fault in replacing old smartphone batteries and started some very small fires.) Swollen batteries as well incorporate gases that you don't want to inhale.
If you're replacing the battery yourself, exist sure to box it up as presently as you take it out. Exercise not discard the battery in the trash or elsewhere. That's an environmental no-no, and exposes sanitation workers who may come up into contact with the bombardment to a health hazard. Ever dispose of batteries—swollen or not—at an authorized battery-disposal facility. Your system maker can clue you in to disposal processes and locations. In addition, a quick Google search should point y'all to a proper battery-disposal site. Yous can likewise contact your local authorities and the waste-disposal arm for instructions.
Big-box retailers, as well, may be the easiest route depending on where you live. "I would strongly recommend people take them to Best Buy, or to local [tech] retailers or even Habitation Depot, which have [battery] recycle boxes," says Jakes. "Even good lithium batteries are causing havoc in the waste stream."
Relish your devices and the performance offered by lithium-ion batteries and their new smart upgrades, but be aware that they should exist treated with care and respect. If not, it may be more than just a battery that needs replacement.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/help-my-laptop-battery-is-swollen-now-what
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