Thanks for the reply. I have checked in the BIOS and it does say that the battery is operating normally, but I am not sure that that is a reliable indicator.
I appreciate that batteries will degrade over time, and to quote the official Dell answer:
“For the typical user, noticeable reduction in run time generally will be observed after 18 to 24 months.”
Except I am noticing serious degradation in less than 18 weeks! Typically Lithium Ion batteries will lose around 20% capacity after the first year. I have lost 14% already in as many weeks. Meaning a predicted loss of capacity of 52% in the first year. That isn’t typical or normal. It usually takes a couple of months before capacity starts to drop, and I’ve never seen it at this rate.
You also mentioned that the battery loses capacity due to hundreds of charge and discharge cycles, but I have only had my laptop for around 100 days, and so have charged it less than 100 times, therefore I shouldn’t be seeing this much degradation in capacity.
According to the Dell Software that came with the laptop, constantly charging it to 100% damages the battery, and so I enabled the Battery Longevity Setting as instructed which was meant to only charge the battery between 88-100% but this didn’t seem to work. The capacity kept dropping a lot, assuming it was the software I disabled it, it did regain some capacity again but the capacity has still continued to drop. Could this software be part of the problem?
I will try updating the BIOS as requested and update you. My fingers are crossed that either the BIOS is misreporting battery capacity, or that the Battery Longevity software is somehow stuck on (which would explain the almost uniform capacity drop), and that is the cause.