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I have a secondhand Dell Laptop, a Dell E5570. I had to replace the battery because it was bulging, so I bought a replacement battery from eBay. The listing said it's a new Dell 47 Wh NGGX5 battery that is compatible with my laptop. Sure enough, it matches the old battery. So, I installed it, and everything seems to be running smoothly, but I'm worried that I didn't do what the seller said about the battery and screwed things up (let it charge by AC adapter first, repeat discharging and recharging 2x).

Today, I was running Zoom (on battery power, no AC charger plugged in), and I noticed that the battery capacity fluctuates as I'm running programs. This is all through Windows 10's power plans (no Dell Software). In an effort to monitor my battery, I ran " powercfg /batteryreport " to generate a battery report. How do I interpret the battery report to ensure that my battery is genuine and that my battery is working in good condition?

Specs:

  • Edition Windows 10 Pro
  • Version 20H2
  • Installed on ‎3/‎12/‎2021
  • OS build 19042.867
  • Experience Windows Feature Experience Pack 120.2212.551.0
  • Bios Ver. 1.7.3 06/15/2016
  • OS 19041.1.amd64fre.vb_release.191206-1406

Battery 1:

  • Name: Dell RDRH971
  • Manufacturer: LGC-LGC4.20
  • Serial Number: 8787
  • Design Capacity: 46,991 mWh
  • Full Charge Capacity: 36,423 mWh
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You have answered your own question - The battery is marginal - having 77% of its design capacity left (ie 36423/46991). It's fairly arbitrary but the general rule is when a battery falls below 80% capacity it should be replaced.

Unless you left the battery discharged for a while, a couple of full discharges should not nail the battery because lithium batteries have a few hidden percent that can't be used (but it is bad for it), and charging it to 100% is not a problem, although not ideal. I believe you got a second-hand battery. Most cheap batteries on eBay are fake or second hand.

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  • Note the battery you linked to is NOT a Dell battery. It may be compatible with Dell computers, but it is not OEM. This is a pity as it does not appear to advise how old it is. I wpould return it.
    – davidgo
    Commented Mar 21, 2021 at 19:54
  • Thanks for your reply. It's helpful. I mean, this is a laptop that I don't use often now, but it's a new one that I plan to use more often; for the time, it's turned off always. I couldn't find the official Dell NGGX5 battery (that was what the bad one was), and the eBay had the 'battery' at a price that I could afford. All the other ones seem to be like over $110. If it was real, the battery report should report it as an NGGX5 battery in the name, correct? I'm just not sure what's the best move here.
    – BestQualityVacuum
    Commented Mar 21, 2021 at 20:09
  • Since the battery is what it is, if I use it plugged in, is it fine to do so? I can't find a genuine battery anywhere, and there's no guarantee of one online. Even Dell doesn't have them, so that's saying something.
    – BestQualityVacuum
    Commented Mar 23, 2021 at 13:44
  • You are likely fine to use the system with the battery you bought - and doing so is definately bettee then using a bloated batteey and probably better then no battery.
    – davidgo
    Commented Mar 23, 2021 at 17:54

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