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I have a Dell Precision 5510 laptop. I recently replaced the battery as I was having this issue, but the issue persisted with the replacement.

In the OS (originally with Win10, but then later with Linux), the battery would read out at 100% shortly after unplugging it, then fairly quickly would decline through the 90's (within 1-2 minutes) and then immediately asking me to plug in the power supply just before powering.

Here's the bugger. When I do the same thing while on the battery screen in BIOS, the laptop will run for nearly two hours. Then take a couple of hours to charge back up, unplug, and last another two hours. So then, I charge it back up, boot into Ubuntu, unplug - two minutes tops before it shuts down.

I fresh-installed OSes, I tried power calibration routines. Nothing is helping so far. BIOS is good. OS is bad.

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  • What do you mean by "power calibration routines"? Did you try to use a different power profile, or better did you try to adjust the settings?
    – Albin
    Commented Aug 31, 2020 at 21:10
  • I have not seen anything in Windows or Linux that would drain a battery in two minutes. Look in Ubuntu Settings, Power Management and see if it is trying to suspend right away. And then look to your battery to see if if needs replacing.
    – anon
    Commented Aug 31, 2020 at 21:13
  • In Linux I tried the power-calibrate utility and in Windows I used Smarter Battery. Both seemed to think there was plenty of life left in the battery (90th+ percentile).
    – happygaijin
    Commented Aug 31, 2020 at 21:26

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BIOS on any computer uses very little power in order to run. There is hardly any load on the processor, none on the HDD, and not much anywhere else. This is why your battery works as it isn't given hardly any work to do. Purchase a new battery.

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  • I did already replace the battery as my first sentence states. But I am beginning to suspect that maybe it was a dud. Your comment jives with that. Thank you
    – happygaijin
    Commented Aug 31, 2020 at 21:23
  • If it was a 3rd party battery and not Dell OEM, then it very well could be a bad battery.
    – anon
    Commented Aug 31, 2020 at 21:26
  • I wasn't able to find a Dell OEM battery. But I did find a brand that seemed to have some trust and good reviews/ratings. I tried one of their batteries. Same behavior. Three batteries, all doing the exact same thing. Shouldn't they at least behave a bit differently? It is feeling suspiciously like something outside of the battery at this point.
    – happygaijin
    Commented Sep 18, 2020 at 20:52
  • Now it's looking like you may need to try your system with a blank, new copy of windows. If possible, get another laptop HDD - swap it out and fresh install an OS from DVD/USB media then try the test again. If the battery still dies quickly then it's not a problem that is easily fixed as the charge controller is faulty. We only need the extra HDD if you don't want to wipe your current HDD
    – JohnnyVegas
    Commented Sep 19, 2020 at 8:22

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