Getting Bad Battery Life on Dell Latitude 5520 i5 1145g7 (Recent ACT Deal)

Sinnerator on 02/10/2025 - 17:29
Last edited 02/10/2025 - 21:06 by 1 other user

Hello, I need help fixing this problem. Battery drains too fast, I am getting 2.5 to 3 hours on this, whilst on my older Latitude 5500 with 8365u I get 5 to 6 hours (all things considered both batteries hold comparable amount of charge). Both laptops are same spec RAM SSD screen etc, same software. Same usage patterns, except on this laptop I have more power saving settings turned on than the old laptop.

I did a fresh install from USB (media creation tool from MS website) Win11 pro 24H2, everything worked fine. Did all the updates, downloaded SupportAssist which did more updates. Including firmware and bios.

Used the cmd powercfg /batteryreport, 3 times and every time battery at 93%, Dell power manager shows battery health at excellent.

I have done the use laptop battery to 0 then fully charge +2hours.

Yesterday I watched the battery meter count down from 30% to 6% in ~15 minutes (normal use nothing intensive, with energy saver turned on), I knew something was wrong. Did some trouble shooting today and discovered Firefox was being a resource hog, turned hardware acceleration to gpu not cpu and turned off 2 AI settings in profile.

Just now I watched the battery meter count down from 30% to 6% in ~30 minutes (normal use nothing intensive, with energy saver turned on), so yeah things are a little better, but room for improvement considering google says this laptop has better battery efficiency than the older one.

Battery Usage, I have mainly used firefox 86%; reddit, youtube, and other mostly text websites.

Anyone have a clue as to what else I can do to get more battery life? I love this laptop it was awesome value and in tip top condition, but the old one gets a lot more battery life.

Thanks for any help :-)

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Dell

• 

  boomramada on 02/10/2025 - 17:42

  Update bios?
  Re install windows ?
  Get a new battery?

  • 

    Sinnerator on 02/10/2025 - 18:35

    One of the updates was a bios one, I remember sitting there praying to 7000 gods that it doesn't brick my computer.
    No please no, don't make me reinstall windows again.
    Is it possible that eventho the battery reports at 93% there is a hidden dead spot?

• 

  scotty on 02/10/2025 - 18:00

  +1

  i5-1145G7 has typical TDP at 28W and i5-8365U is at 15W. However at the same usage I don't think one would drain more battery than the other.

  • 

    Sinnerator on 02/10/2025 - 18:33

    1145g7 = tdp down 12 to tdp up 28, 8365u = 15 to 25, so much for muchness, and guessing the newer one would be generally more efficient and could achieve more at lower clocks, guessing?

    • 

      GUYANDSON on 03/10/2025 - 10:12

      +2

      track TDP in actual use with something like HWinfo

      • 

        Sinnerator on 03/10/2025 - 18:33

        good idea

        for 1145G7
        Edge 2 tabs, 1 playing a youtube @720p, + Music Playing in Legacy Player.
        so HWinfo64 CPU Package Power shows after 10 mins; max 16W, but mostly sitting around 5 or 6W with occasional short term spikes up to 10 to 14w (looks fairly efficient to me)

        I will test the 8365u later tonight.

• 

  Doge on 02/10/2025 - 20:50

  Something is wrong. My work laptop is a 5520 with 1185g7 and while the battery has never been great it is getting ~4 hours of general office usage with a 2 year old battery. Powercfg should show you the actual mAh capacity of the battery, what is it? Also, is it a genuine Dell battery?

  • 

    Sinnerator on 03/10/2025 - 08:14

    BATTERY 1
    

    NAME DELL M033W21
    MANUFACTURER BYD
    SERIAL NUMBER 3991
    CHEMISTRY LiP
    DESIGN CAPACITY 62,366 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 57,958 mWh

    62366%%%%57958 = 92.93%

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  bargaino on 02/10/2025 - 21:07

  +1

  I got the 5420 with 5-1135G7 .
  And yes the battery life was awful. Even worse after I installed Linux.
  The battery is only used to power sleep mode in transport now.

  I have done the use laptop battery to 0 then fully charge +2hours.

  You may need to do a few full cycles to get accurate battery report.
  I'm seeing 9W discharge when idle, which is a lot!

  • 

    Sinnerator on 03/10/2025 - 08:15

    completed battery report 3 times and several discharge cycles over 3days, I am thinking the battery is ok,
    I think I might stop using firefox and use edge instead and see if that helps.

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  Drakesy on 03/10/2025 - 11:39

  I have a feeling the processor is a power hog, the 8365u has a fairly frugal low power battery draw. This one has a lot more higher power headroom so is likely using it.

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    Sinnerator on 03/10/2025 - 12:44

    1145g7 = tdp down 12 to tdp up 28, 8365u = 15 to 25, so much for muchness, and guessing the newer one would be generally more efficient and could achieve more at lower clocks. And with both laptops use case being identical I don't think the 1145g7 would be the problem.
    More concerning is the drain from ~36% to 6% in 15mins.
    I have uninstalled firefox and if this doesn't fix it I am going to call it a fake/dodgy/faulty battery with a lower real capacity. Also the new but non-oem power supply started playing up last night.

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  Sinnerator on 03/10/2025 - 12:53

  DESIGN CAPACITY 62,366 mWh
  FULL CHARGE CAPACITY 53,869 mWh
  = 86%

  Its dropped from 93% yesterday

  • 

    Drakesy on 03/10/2025 - 12:58

    It's more the battery monitoring program learns more every drain/charge cycle.

    I think it'll continue to decrease, batteries cooked.

    mind you 53,000mWh is a fairly sizeable chunk.

    • 

      Sinnerator on 03/10/2025 - 13:07

      It's meant to be Grade A condition which I believe battery is 80% minimum. I was very happy when I first booted it and it had 93%, teaches me for being happy about anything.

      • 

        Randxyz123 on 03/10/2025 - 14:27

        Where did you buy it? I am assuming as you have mentioned "Grade A condition" it was refurbished.

        I'd contact their support. Sounds like the battery is cooked.

        • 

          Sinnerator on 03/10/2025 - 18:08

          @Randxyz123: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/925544
          it was this deal. Price $309 delivered was great.

          I think grade A means including better than 80% battery life. It's dropped to 86%, I will do a health report every day lol, and if it goes below 80% soon I will definitely contact their support.

          It's a great laptop otherwise, in excellent, almost perfect, condition. Comes with Intel Vpro (which I do not need) and win11Pro.

          I think Firefox was being a massive hog, I uninstalled that this morn, and using Edge, still too early to see the effects.