Sudden decrease of laptop battery capacity

Question

Hi, my laptop is not new by any means, and I do expect the battery health to decrease, however, one day I noticed that my battery discharges faster than usual. After checking the battery report, it looks like the battery capacity (see image) has decreased from 31,510 mWh on November 3rd to 10th to 17,926 mWh on November 10th - 17th. Then another major decrease from 17,926 mWh to 13,500 mWh. May I know what can be the probable cause of this? Is my battery defective or is there some other underlying cause behind this?

Answer 1

Hi, I am Dave, I will help you with this.

I need some more information about your laptop, click your Start Button, then just type msinfo and press Enter, please provide a screenshot of the resulting System Information window.

Answer 2

Does this work?

Answer 3

Thank you for the screenshot.

Start your laptop, then on the Dell logo screen, repeatedly press the F12 key.

On the resulting menu, select 'Diagnostics', and run that full diagnostics test, does it find any problem with the battery or power adapter on your laptop?

Answer 4

Everytime I run a diagnostic check, the test is interrupted followed by this message, "The battery cannot provide sufficient power". I'm guessing this means its time to replace my battery.

Answer 5

Yes, that is correct, the battery needs to be replaced if that is the error you see in Dell Diagnostics.