Dell Laptop battery charge settings

Frozen_up_north

Dell have replaced "MyDell" with "Dell Optimizer". With the old MyDell, it was easy to set min/max charge states, eg it would charge when the battery dropped to 20% and not charge above 80%, or you could change it to charge to 100% if you were going out and needed maximum battery life.

Unfortunately, the new Dell Optimizer settings don't appear have any effect... My battery charged to 52% from around 10% and was just sitting there regardless of whether I turn Dynamic Charge on or off, or turn on/off the Intelligent Battery Extender.

The laptop is about 18 months old and the battery is shown as excellent condition. The laptop is a Dell Vostro with Win 11 Pro.

The fix appears to be to enter the BIOS and change the charge arrangement (press F2 on powering up to enter the BIOS). The battery now charges but having to go into the BIOS is a big step backwards.

bob2302

Frozen_up_north said:

Dell have replaced "MyDell" with "Dell Optimizer". With the old MyDell, it was easy to set min/max charge states, eg it would charge when the battery dropped to 20% and not charge above 80%,

Why leave it till it's down to 20%?

Frozen_up_north

bob2302 said:

Why leave it till it's down to 20%?

That’s the auto charge setting, which avoids endless charging when it might not be needed. You could set the upper and lower parameters.
20/80 is a generally recommended upper/lower threshold to give maximum life from a lithium ion battery.
The same kind of suggested charge limit applies to electric cars and mobile phones. Remember the controversy over Tesla cars in America that had an “over the air” range increase? That was to let the battery discharge to a lower charge level to give greater range. OK in a hurricane situation, but not for daily use.