We recently discovered that our Dell Latitude E6400 Laptop had a flashing warning light displaying a battery failure but did not bother to do anything about it because we always used it connected to the power outlet. We rebooted a few times after application updates and bypassed the battery warnings on “boot up” to resume our work.
We then discovered that there was sluggishness to the performance of the laptop and all videos played with a stutter, also applications took longer than normal to open, including searching the internet.
We opened the Task Manager and discovered a high CPU rate and some sudden bursts of CPU activity that occurred for no apparent reason.
We ran all application and hardware diagnostics, including checks for Trojans, viruses and spyware but found none.
We then researched via the internet the issue and possible solution, attempted the “fixes” suggested by persons experiencing similar problems but had no luck with our problem.
We then decided to replace our defective battery, to at least fix that issue and as soon as we replaced the battery, shut down our computer and rebooted our laptop resumed operating performance as good as the day it first emerged out of the box. The CPU rate returned to normal, videos play flawlessly, all applications open quickly and searching the internet now occurs without frustrating delay.
Therefore, if you have a laptop, especially the Dell Latitude E6400 with a bad battery warning indicator, you should first replace the battery before looking too far for other solutions to the performance issues.
NOTE: This Helpful Hint document is intended for educational purposes only. Please refer to the respective owner’s manual and manufacturer’s representative for information pertaining to your specific issue.