Dell Inspiron Mini 10 1012 T96F2 Replacement Battery 11.1V 4400mAh

Dell Inspiron Mini 1012 — 11.1V Li-ion Replacement Battery (T96F2)

This is an 11.1V, 4400mAh (48.84Wh) Li-ion battery for the Dell Inspiron Mini 10 1012 netbook. It replaces OEM part numbers T96F2, CMP3D, 3K4T8, NJ644, 312-0966, and several other Dell-issued references for this platform. If your original cell no longer holds a charge or causes sudden shutdowns, this is the direct swap.

• Inspiron Mini 1012 platform fit: The 1012 line — including the N450 and 464-1012 variants — all share the same 11.1V three-cell battery bay, connector pinout, and BMS communication protocol. One cell covers the full range without modification.
• Bench tested on actual hardware: We ran this cell through charge and discharge cycles on a 1012 unit. The BMS handshake initialised correctly, charge acceptance was normal from the first cycle, and the Dell EC recognised the cell without throwing an unknown battery warning.
• Post-install calibration on the 1012: After fitting this battery, run the charge to 100%, then use the laptop normally until it hibernates at the low-voltage cutoff — do not interrupt. Charge back to 100% uninterrupted. This resets the BIOS battery learn cycle and clears the inaccurate health warning that appears after every cell swap.

BIOS reporting poor battery health after swapping the 1012 cell

Dell's EC reads health data stored in the battery's EEPROM. When a new cell goes in, the EEPROM data does not match the discharge history the BIOS has accumulated — so it flags the battery as degraded or unknown. This is not a fault with the new cell. Running one complete discharge-to-hibernate then a full uninterrupted charge writes fresh data to the learn cycle and clears the flag. After two to three cycles the health reading stabilises and reflects the actual cell state.

Laptop shuts down at 20–30% charge shown on the 1012

This happens when the fuel gauge IC has not yet calibrated against the new cell's actual voltage curve. The OS reads a percentage that no longer maps accurately to the cell's real state of charge. Under full CPU and display load, the cell hits its low-voltage cliff before the gauge catches up — the system cuts power as a protection response. Run two full discharge-to-hibernate and full-recharge cycles to let the gauge IC re-anchor its readings. After calibration, shutdowns at false percentages stop and the gauge tracks within a few percent of actual capacity.