Thursday, July 11, 2013

removing Dell battery message "Your battery is able to charge normally. However it is reaching the end of its usable life"

By design, Dell laptops will warn you as their battery life starts to decline.  When you log in, Windows will display this message "Your battery is able to charge normally. However it is reaching the end of its usable life"

My comment on this message is typically this:

---
All rechargeable batteries have a limited life span. It varies from battery to battery, but a battery typically loses 25% of its life per year (so a 2 year old battery lasts half as long as it did when it was new).

While it’s typical for a battery to last less long, it’s not so much of a problem unless the battery life no longer meets your needs. If you say the word, I’ll begin the process of requesting a new battery on your behalf.
---

I found this elegant way to remove the warning which seems to work on all E series Dell Latitude laptops.

http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/p/19317355/20118960.aspx#20118960

In short, download and install the Dell Feature Enhancement pack:
64 bit version:
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/us/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=MHVWP

32 bit version:
http://www.dell.com/support/drivers/bm/en/19/driverdetails?driverid=DV6XM

The follow these steps:

1. Copy all *.admx files in C:\Program Files\Dell\Feature Enhancement Pack\policydefinitions to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions

2. Copy all *.adml files in C:\Program Files\Dell\Feature Enhancement Pack\policydefinitions\en_US to C:\Windows\PolicyDefinitions\en-US

3. Run Group Policy Editor - Click Start button and in the Search box type gpedit.msc and click the result

4. Browse to Computer Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> System -> Dell -> Feature Enhancement Pack -> System Events and double click Battery in the right pane

5. Select Enable radio button and put a check mark for "Battery health degraded"

6. You can get rid of any other massages there as well

7. Click OK

1 comment:

Elizabeth J. Neal said...

This simple act only takes a moment but is one of the best defenses your family has against the devastating effects of a home fire. batteroo