There's really no tip to give. I just had a user here that tried a non Dell battery and when they tried it the Laptop came up with "Battery not recognized" does this happen with all Dell Laptops? I'm not a 100% sure. Maybe other Dell Laptop owners can shed some light or verify that they indeed have had success with a non Dell battery.

I typed this into google; >> can I use a non dell battery in a dell laptop Below is one of the hits dated January 2010. Read it and weep.

http://nctritech.wordpress.com/2010/01/26/dell-laptops-reject-third-party-batteries-and-ac-adapterschargers-hardware-vendor-lock-in/

again one of the reasons I do not buy Dell and do not recommend them, they have gotten nuts with their proprietary stuff.
I got a great deal on ebay for a battery for my Acer netbook, why should a Dell owner be penalized and have to pay so much more for their products.

Guess I'm stuck!!

A risk with third party batteries is that they not-infrequently are lower quality and have less capacity than OEM versions. I personally never take the chance.

A dead battery in a laptop is like a needed major repair on a car - you go the cheaper route if the rest still works fine, or it's a good excuse to buy a whole new replacement. But even when going the cheaper route and getting a replacement battery, i think it's a false economy to buy an aftermarket brand.

Capacity is rated in milliAmp hours, for laptops it's usually a number in the single digit thousands ( 3000-9999 mAh hours)