Laptop hardware component & upgrades forum: Dell Mini 10(1012) Battery at 31% ?

Hi,

I am writing as we bought a Dell Inspiron 10 (1012) and two nights ago, it got disconnected from the ac adapter and the screen went dark(yikes) then plugged back in and battery level indicated a 1% charge, it did go up to 31% but that was the max, even > 12 hours , its a 3 cell battery (original battery) Purchased mini-laptop April 2010, never had a issue prior, we do most times use the ac adapter and *not run it on batteries, I went to Dell.com support and under the model and battery problems trouble shooting it stated (It does not harm the battery if You use the ac adapter all the time) I had heard both prior* use the battery at times and others not a issue) (two other laptops in the house (a MacBook pro and a Sony Vaio are used both on battery and AC adapter depending on use (School etc)

I did note under this Dell Mini 10(1012) some updates, their are 7 categories and I am going to get those up to date (it is degragmented, swept of virus's all WinXP updated done etc

*was unaware Dell itself had its own updates as I am a Mac user and Software-hardware drivers etc are all in one place

? does it harm a lap top battery to use AC almost all the time if not all?

I did price batteries and found original OEM Dell batteries (now they are 6 cell and far less than on dell.com
and non OEM even lower

but will do the Dell updates and go from there and check back here

I would sure appreciate tips, experiences and also
if we did not change out the battery (and it stays at 31%) risks. problems etc
(It did go to 1% ? cell issue?)

and do laptops have secondary(small battery) like desktops to keep settings such as time date, (Do not want to wipe out everything and re-install etc
(Operating system etc) have external drives, best use them! or at least DVD's as not a lot saved on it
Thanks
ambienttales

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