About this replacement
Dell Vostro 1400 / Inspiron 1420 — 11.1V Li-ion Replacement Battery (WW116)
This is an 11.1V, 6600mAh (73.26Wh) Li-ion battery for the Dell Vostro 1400 and Inspiron 1420 notebooks. It replaces OEM part numbers WW116, FT080, FT095, MN151, MN154, and the 312-0xxx series. If your original cell is swelling, dropping charge rapidly, or refusing to hold power under load, this is the direct swap.
- Vostro 1400 and Inspiron 1420 platform fit: Both models run on the same 11.1V three-cell battery rail, share the same 9-pin SMBus connector, and use the same Dell BMS handshake protocol — one cell covers both chassis without modification.
- Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this cell through full charge and discharge cycles on a Vostro 1400 unit. The BMS communicated charge state correctly, the Dell power manager recognised the cell without error flags, and voltage held steady across CPU stress and display-on load.
- BIOS learn cycle after installation: After fitting this cell, run one full discharge to hibernate cutoff, then charge uninterrupted to 100%. This resets the Dell BIOS battery learn cycle and clears the inaccurate health warning that appears after every cell swap.
Why the Vostro 1400 shuts down at 20–30% remaining after a battery swap
The Vostro 1400 BIOS maps the fuel gauge against discharge curves stored from the previous cell. When a new cell is installed, the old curve no longer matches actual cell chemistry, so the BIOS calls a voltage cliff earlier than the true empty point. Under full load — CPU boost plus display backlight — the new cell's voltage drops faster than the stale curve predicts, triggering an emergency shutdown. Run two full discharge-to-hibernate cycles followed by uninterrupted charges to 100%. After that, the fuel gauge IC recalibrates against the new cell and the early shutdowns stop.
Dell showing wrong Wh rating in system info after fitting a replacement cell
The Wh value displayed in Dell's battery meter comes from EEPROM data written at the factory, not from real-time cell measurement. A replacement cell's EEPROM may report a rated Wh figure that differs slightly from the 73.26Wh actual capacity of this battery. This is a data field mismatch, not a cell defect. The discrepancy does not affect charging behaviour or discharge performance — the SMBus charge controller operates on measured voltage, not the EEPROM Wh field.