Some Dell Mini 9s said to be shipping with smaller batteries

It's not clear exactly how widespread the problem is, but it looks like at least some Dell Mini 9s are shipping with smaller batteries than they should be -- a situation that, you may remember, also plagued some Eee PCs a little ways back. According to jkkmobile, while the all the batteries are labeled a 32Wh, 4 cell batteries, a quick software test of their own Mini 9 revealed that the battery was in fact only 24Wh, which certainly cuts into the promised four-hour runtime a bit. Apparently, the folks on the MyDellMini forums were able to surmise that batteries with labels beginning in "CN" are the proper 32Wh models, while those that begin with "KR" are the smaller ones. Of course, there's no way to check that until you actually get one in your hands, so we're hoping Dell steps in to clear things up a bit.

[Via jkkmobile]

Update: It looks like MyDellMini forum member that initially reported this issue has since run a few more tests and discovered that the two batteries aren't as different as it seems at first, and likely not different enough to worry about. That's further backed up by some rundown tests, which actually showed the supposedly smaller KR battery lasting a bit longer than the CN one.

[Greg2k @ Dec 18th 2008 2:59PM]

"CN" as in China and "KR" as in Korea?

[Kevin @ Dec 18th 2008 3:12PM]

Yeah I thought that too.

Still trying to come up with some derogatory joke about Koreans providing smaller batteries. So far I got nothing.

[Patriks7 @ Dec 18th 2008 4:56PM]

Kevin, what joke is there? They like to keep everything similar in sizes :P

[Fanfoot @ Dec 18th 2008 9:10PM]

FYI--latest posts on the mydellmini forum show roughly the same rundown time for both batteries, so this is starting to look like a reporting error, rather than a real problem. you may want to wait for more news before spending a lot of time on hold with Dell.

[Mike Bison @ Dec 18th 2008 3:00PM]

Just checked my Mini 9 which I bought the very first day they went on the US site. Mine is a KR, I get 4+ hours every single time, and in general I am in Netbook bliss. Should I even mess with (close) perfection?

[Oli D @ Dec 18th 2008 3:32PM]

I thought your display name said Mike Barson...

So i wont be watching you play keys for Madness tomorrow then..

[andy @ Dec 18th 2008 3:36PM]

I'd wait and see if anything comes of this. If your netbook is older It might have the correct batteries even with the code.

[GingerFox @ Dec 18th 2008 3:04PM]

well thats just unfair

[tom @ Dec 18th 2008 3:08PM]

I think Dell has gone too far!!! I am already upset with speaking to tech support located half way around the world and closing domestic factories. They are under-cutting battery size?

[Chase @ Dec 18th 2008 3:06PM]

My dell mini 9 gets 4 hours every time as well!

[Oli D @ Dec 18th 2008 3:07PM]

Thanks Mydellmini:

"Oh yeah, the 24W ones are smaller than the 32W...

Hey guys, does our gimick really mandate a whole website?"

[Chase @ Dec 18th 2008 3:07PM]

My dell mini 9 gets 4 hours every time as well

[Chase @ Dec 18th 2008 3:07PM]

Oh Shit!

[Oli D @ Dec 18th 2008 3:09PM]

no its ok, you turned the oven off before you left the house.

[Sahil Malik @ Dec 18th 2008 3:19PM]

Dell is definitely cutting corners. I just got myself a desktop, and they shipped it with the ultra bare minimums .. as in .. single DVI-VGA adapter, no mouse, no manuals... to some extent I don't really care for the extra paper etc. they stuff in the boxes .. but damn, atleast ship the system with the basic cables/parts etc.? DAMN!

And this morning I had a BSOD on a fresh, untouched system .. so tonight I'll be spending a few hours running diagnostics on all the parts. Hope they didn't send me bad memory .. all 16G of it. :-/

[sandmanfvrga @ Dec 18th 2008 3:33PM]

At work, we got an EA (NOT that ea, Enterprise Agreement) with them and DELL. We get business class machines with bad mobos, etc. It is ridiculous. We had a full line of machines, about 20, and over 15 had bad mobos with capacitors that blew! DELL is going down in quality, big time. IF I was you, I would RETURN that thing and get a new one. Just my opinion, your money.

[Ross @ Dec 18th 2008 4:40PM]

@sandmanfvrga

I disagree, I maintain 50 Dell Latitude D630/20's, and the only problems I have is that people accidentally pop off the keys or drop their laptops, which leads to anything, mainly HDD failure, but very rarely (strike zone protection). And generally their customer service is excellent as well, except if you're unlucky and you need to call at 10pm (Newfoundland time) then you end up with somebody from the middle east you can't really understand too well. But the warranty guaranties next day delivery, which true enough bumped the price up at the beginning but it's definitely worth it. Even though these batteries will probably just be recalled, and it wouldn't affect any warranties.

[absinthe party @ Dec 18th 2008 3:21PM]

Oh snap!


... is what I would have replied if this was still 1996.

[Oli D @ Dec 18th 2008 3:26PM]

Mom?

You forgot to pay my Microsoft Operations Manager?

Man... your weird.

[Windhawk @ Dec 18th 2008 3:34PM]

Don't f*ck with battery time. This is one of the key drivers towards one brand over another. I wouldn't consider buying anything less than the a netbook with a 6-cell battery.

[madgic987 @ Dec 18th 2008 4:52PM]

*sigh*

Are we still under the impression that the number of cells in a battery is the only thing that dictates how long it'll last?

[Ian @ Dec 18th 2008 3:38PM]

His weird what?

[Pete @ Dec 18th 2008 3:54PM]

She's like a light switch.... anyone can turn her on.

[GenoMalice @ Dec 18th 2008 3:57PM]

As bad as the mom joke was.... That was one seriously whack comeback Oil D...

...Go lie down and rest before you embarass yourself again!

[BigD145 @ Dec 18th 2008 4:01PM]

Boycott Dell. If they can't afford quality control then they don't deserve any business.

[Oli D @ Dec 18th 2008 4:29PM]

second, my Dell Inspiron's MS office cert was not valid... And they wouldn't give me a refund for it.

[Oli D @ Dec 18th 2008 4:21PM]

its been a hard day...

[drop dell @ Dec 18th 2008 5:54PM]

I just checked my mini 9 and the util. shows 24w.. of course I contacted dell and they point me to a line item on my invoice that shows they shipped a 32w. the invoice line item is law to them and any proof I had otherwise is false... so I let them remote access thinking they knew what they were doing.. an hour later the rep. removed my wifi switch and can't get it back. he also wasn't able to check the battery with any "authorized" dell software so he said they won't replace my battery. I finally booted him.. now I wait for the supervisor to call.

[Ted @ Dec 18th 2008 6:02PM]

that sucks

[GingerFox @ Dec 18th 2008 7:04PM]

that does suck

[Zak Strassberg @ Dec 18th 2008 8:05PM]

Hey, what util does this? I'd like to check as well. My battery says KR, and my invoice says 32W, 4 Cell. I bought this laptop because it had good battery life so I'd like to make sure I'm getting it.

[Nancy A @ Dec 18th 2008 8:54PM]

I called Dell tech support this afternoon, and they're sending me a new battery.

[Fanfoot @ Dec 18th 2008 8:44PM]

You can use this:

http://www.pctipp.ch/downloads/betriebssystem/35449/notebook_batteryinfo.html

Unzip it and run the executable. Click on the "Battery System Information" tab. If the Designed Capacity says 24420mWh then its the "bad" battery (probably the serial number starts with KR- on the little square white sticker on the battery). If it says 35520mWh then its the "good" battery (probably the serial number starts with CN-) that they sent to all the original reviewers to make the unit look better.

[pmjzzz @ Dec 18th 2008 9:36PM]

Hi all:

I'm the original poster at mydellmini. Today we ran both batteries to exhaustion, using the same machine, running the same software, with power management turned off.

The KR "24.4 Wh" battery expired after 4h:27. The CN "35.5 Wh" battery lasted 4h:05. Down to about 10% remaining, both draw-down graphs were close to linear. After that point the rate of power usage dropped as the machine apparently tried to "last a bit longer" - and the KR battery lasted much longer in this phase than did the CN battery. After eliminating this last 10% effect - ie extending each graph in a straight line to the x-axis - the times to exhaustion were 4:08 and 4:04. ISTM that these are close enough to be the same.

So this begs the question as to why the data is so different - and which is correct - both voltage and capacity!?!?

Enquiring minds want to know....

I should also apologize for the amount of time that has been wasted here. I wish I'd thought to run this test earlier. Undoubtedly there is
a problem - but ISTM that it's probably a data reporting problem rather than a true physical defect in one of the batteries. Let's see if
Dell has an answer....

[Robert @ Dec 19th 2008 1:14AM]

So you've shown that both the batteries have about the same runtime, but they aren't rated to match the value shown on some buyer's sales invoices (32WH). I might suspect that the systems ran slower on the 24WH batteries to get the same run time.

[Jo @ Dec 19th 2008 2:01PM]

My opinion is to just buy an HP they work better than anything.

[jayatdell @ Dec 19th 2008 3:38PM]

The Inspiron Mini 9 is configured with, and has never shipped with anything but, 32WH batteries. A third-party test software program being used in the field doesn't properly program every vendor's battery to report power (versus current) capabilities, and so the utility is not properly reporting the actual battery capacity. We have confirmed this and all packs are 4-cell 32Whr, and will deliver more than 4 hours of battery life in typical usage.

[drop dell @ Dec 19th 2008 6:35PM]

update: No dell supervisor ever called me back.

I just ran the mini 9 on battery surfing the web, watching web videos, etc. and it lasted 3 hours and 5 minutes before it shut down. That's pretty weak when you factor in that I wasn't using wireless (because the dell "tech" got rid of the switch for me).