Dell Laptop battery life

Hi

I have a dell laptop it is about 3/4 years old. The battery life has never been good about 2.5 hours. What is really bugging me is that when the battery is low it justs shuts down with no warning. I have adjusted the critical batter indicaater etc to no avail. Even if I keep an eye on it, it often shows 30 mins remaining and then 5 mins later shuts down.

Any suggestions

A new battery. 'Tis past its sell by date.

You'll get a generic one on ebay for a very reasonable price.

I had a Dell laptop and got 3 years out of it before it "died". I went through 2 batteries. As PaddyBloggit says, you just need a new battery. You can run a diagnostic which tells you exactly how much your battery is charging etc but you already know its days are numbered and soon you won't be able to charge it at all.

Simple answer is to get your laptop's battery replaced as you have used it more that its average life. There are ways to extent life of a fresh battery such a charging wisely, customizing power options, etc. But in your case, the battery is old and depleted; you need to buy a new one now.