I'll bet replacing the battery with a six-volt one will make things much, much better. But even if it does fix the problem, pay attention to what Dell says about cleaning things.I usually clean and inspect battery cables and the attendant connections whenever I replace a battery. If you do so, you may not notice any improvement right away, but there will be a long-term increase in reliability. Your voltage regulator may be problematic. Many 6 volt regulators were apparently tweaked when an 8-volt battery was installed. I don't think yours was, which is why the battery was always flat. But I would check the voltage across the battery terminals just to be sure. You want about 7 1/2 volts. One final note, not really mechanical; while Parkinson's patients do run a disproportionate risk of Alzheimer's disease, more than half of them exhibit no deterioration in memory and reasoning skills DIRECTLY attributable to Parkinsons. In other words, unless you know or suspect the owner also has Alzheimer's don't be afraid to ask questions like, "Did you tweak the voltage regulator?" He can probably provide reliable answers. On the other hand, be careful about taking an Alzheimer's patient's word about such questions at face value. They mean well, but the information they offer is often (but not always) unreliable. (Obviously, I unfortunately have extensive personal experience with both Alzheimer's and Parkinson's patients.)
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