I have an Inspiron 1545 about 10 yrs old. I almost always use it with the AC adapter. About 6 months ago I started using it on battery several times a week and found the original battery would discharge very quickly - then a message appeared saying the battery needed to be replaced. I replaced it with a generic battery which worked fine, and I had about 2 hours of battery time before it discharged. Over time, the battery discharges quicker and quicker until now I have about a half hour of battery life.
Yesterday, I tried to use the laptop on battery and after about 10 min. it abruptly shut down - no low battery warning, just suddenly a black screen and power light off. I turned it back on, the battery was at 56%, and it ran for about 5 min before shutting down. Next time I turned it on, the battery was at 36% and it shut of almost immediately.
I connected the AC adapter later and charged it up to 100% and ran it off the adapter for the rest of the day and left it plugged in all night. Today, I tried to run the laptop off the battery and it turned off after about 10 min. with the battery at 86%. I plugged in and went to Dell support where I ran a battery diagnostic and it reported the battery passed.
For what its worth, I really like this computer - very,very few problems and those have been easily fixed using both Dell support and Microsoft support. I run the Microsoft security essentials scan for spyware and malware weekly, and periodically run an advertising malware scan and cleaner.
Is this battery failing or is this a problem with the computer?
