Alert System battery voltage is low

Happy New Year Linda,

I am going to try to put the new battery in tomorrow. I have already copied the Bios settings awhile ago. So I have them ready. Now that I know I'll only have to reset the date and time I hope, I feel better. Not knowing what could happen has been holding me back from doing it. I installed some new memory last week and as I am not all that familiar with the inside  of my computer, it took me a year to build up my nerve to install this memory. Fortunatelly the memory is working great, so I have a bit more confidence now..  Lee   PS. i will let you know how it goes..

Yes please let me know how everything goes and thanks for keeping me updated!

Happy New Year to you as well.  I hope that you have a good New Years Day!!!

Linda~

Hello Derkajack,

I guess in some cases it could be just a bad battery that needs to be changed. I know in my case and in some others it was the surge protector causing the low battery warning for some reason and I've not found out why and yes, Dell doesn't seem to have anything in their knowledge base about it. Try doing as Linda said above and change your battery, all I had to do was reset my time and clock. The reset of the settings were all came back OK but to be on the safe side, write down all your bios settings just in case there are any problems..   Lee

just another datapoint on this, I've had my 8300 with XP-MCE for a couple months and this problem just popped up this evening.  I'm plugged directly into the wall, no surge protector, so that's not the issue for me either (although I've been meaning to pick up an UPS).  will try replacing the battery but I'm pretty annoyed about this whole issue, how common it appears to be and how little Dell is doing to help...

danwa

I have had this problem

it started a couple months ago

I contacted dell, and they said to update the bios

I never did because the problem stopped

and now it has started again

lol

I wonder what the actual fix is on this

well, after a year, I too now have the same problem, at least on my last boot! 

I find it VERY HARD to believe that it is the surge protector.  I have used 2 different ones from APC, and never had this problem.  It doesn't just SHOW UP, does it.

seems to me like a BIOS programming error.

Maybe Dell tech should read these posts!

Andy

Please change your battery and let us know if the problem still persists.

Linda~

Dell 8300, Pentium 4 2.6GHz

521MB DDR at 400MHz

80GB

Windows XP Home

Well after my post a couple of months ago everything was fine for a short time. Now, just a week ago, the alert message started showing up again. I don't know what to do since I have done everything that the tech asked me to do short of replacing the battery. The only problem is that the error is so intermittent on my computer and many others that it does not seem like that is the real fix.

I think that the Dell techs need to take a serious look at this issue.  We have all paid decent amounts of money for our 8300s and, we expect them to operate without any problems.

I had this problem yesterday on an 8300 purchased in November. After reading this thread I called Dell support and was surprised to find that they did find a resolution quickly. I'm not sure if this will be a permanent fix because I didn't understand the explanation which was that the system event log fills up the memory in the battery (I think she meant the memory that the battery supports) and it is necessary to clear the event log when that happens.  Here is what I was asked to do:

Restart , go to system setup

Activate Num Lock, Caps Lock, Scroll Lock

ALT-E

Go to System Event Log option , Enter

Choose clear System Event Log , Esc

ALT-F

Esc

Save Changes and Exit

That seemed to correct the problem after I did a restart.

Ron

I do hope that works for you.  Your solution only worked for me for a day and I ended up changing the battery.

Good Luck,

Linda~

ok... I have a Dell Dimension 8250.

and I'm having the same annoying Alert System batter voltage warning. And reading everything on here, while holding for 40 minutes waiting for Dell customer service, makes me think I chose the wrong computer to purchase.

I'm a beginner when it comes to computers... I'm a writer... so the idea of trying to replace a battery on the motherboard sounds cumbersome and complicated..... and I'm generally confused by that (since the computer is fairly new and that should be new, right?).

So, are we talking DEFECTIVE here? And if so, do I need to let the guy who writes a technology column for our newspaper know? Or are we talking about a bug in the system that DELL is choosing to make our problem?

I've also read the suggestions above and tried the well-documented "Restart , go to system setup.......... " solution and it didn't work. And I tried the surge protector.... it doesn't matter if I'm plugged into the wall socket or my surge protector, I get the same WARNING.

Can anyone tell me how I can fix this annoying situation???

HELP.

Dear WriteJC,

Please let your technology friend write a column in the newspaper, maybe that will get Dell's attention and we will find an answer to why so many people are having this error message. 

Changing the battery is easy though.  Dell techs can walk you through it or comes to your house.

Let us know how things go.  And by the way, which Newspaper?

Linda~

I also tried the restart method and it didn't work.

Dell should really get this sorted out, instead of giving the run around.  And NO, I'm not changing my battery on my NEW computer that I paid $2500 for, you can come out here and do that if you don't want to support these questions.