Symptoms

Affected Platforms: LatitudesPrecision MobileVostroInspironAlienwareG SeriesXPS You may be unable to turn on a computer with the battery alone after a long period of being turned off. The battery enters storage mode and you must plug in the AC adapter to turn on or wake up the battery from storage mode.

Cause

To support battery health, Dell batteries enter storage mode which is an auto protection feature that limits power and auto shuts down, this helps to preserve battery capacity, and does not over drain the battery. This feature has been on all Dell Computers and batteries since 2014. The battery enters storage mode once the battery is low or at a maximum of three weeks of non-usage. After the battery is in Storage mode, the CMOS battery is used to keep the time and Custom BIOS settings. The CMOS battery lasts for approximately sixty days if fully charged. After this time, the BIOS will lose its Custom settings.

Resolution

Plug the computer into an AC adapter to boot after a long period of being powered off. Plug in and power the computer within the first month of receiving to avoid the drainage of the CMOS battery and losing the Custom Bios settings. We recommend to fully charge the battery before storage to maximize shelf life. The computer may display an error message upon boot that the: "Time of date not set - please run setup program" message if the CMOS battery has been depleted. Press F2 to enter setup and "esc" to exit. This indicates that the CMOS battery is depleted. The rechargeable CMOS battery starts charging once the AC adapter is plugged in.

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