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Battery Issues


DarkSerge

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Greetings!

 

Is there a way to do a kind-of battery reset on a laptop with Windows 10?

 

The charge level indicated for my battery is never accurate. Sometimes it'll jump indicated charge levels when I plug it in and unplug. Example, it shows 70%, I plug it in, it jumps to 80% or sometimes lower like 60%, then I unplug and it'll jump again to something else like 75%. Very inconsistent. Once it said "0%, not charging" (and worked just fine if I unplugged it.) Other times it'll show I have a charge then just turn off (no shutdown or warning, just BLINK and it's off because the battery's dead.)

 

It's an older laptop, about 7-8 years, so the battery is that old too and I didn't take good care of it in its early years. I'm trying to be more battery smart with it and not leaving it plugged in unless the laptop is on and currently in use. A full charge and then full discharge doesn't seem to be having any effect (especially if I don't know my true power levels.)

 

I think when I first upgraded to Windows 10 is when it really hurt the battery. I didn't know about "Hybrid Shutdown" at first, and the laptop was set to that, so until I disabled it, the battery would drain completely dead.

 

It might just simply no longer be a good battery, and I rarely have any situation where I need it to run on battery for a prolonged amount of time. Is there a way to do a reset on the battery or something? Is there a battery driver that can be removed and re-installed or anything?

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Hello,

 

Does the laptop manufacturer have a battery charging or conditioning program for it? If so, perhaps that will give you more accurate lifecycle results.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

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In my view a 7-8 year old laptop battery has given good service and you've been lucky to get this far with it. My daughter's HP laptop battery was totally dead after 18 months and I had to replace it.

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I use a 3rd party battery program. After testing 3 or 4, I settled on BatteryBar.

You might like to try some battery tools

https://www.raymond.cc/blog/easily-know-battery-remaining-time-and-battery-wear-with-batterybar/

 

I replaced the battery in my husband's 2011 netbook in March of this year. A battery generally lasts between 2 and 5 years.

18 months is a poor showing for a battery but if it is depleted and recharged many times, it happens. The netbook lasted about 5 years. Toward the end of 2016, we noticed that it would say 100% but wouldn't last very long.

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Is there a way to do a kind-of battery reset on a laptop with Windows 10?
RTFM! :D

 

Every notebook manual I have seen tells how to calibrate the battery with the battery charging/monitoring feature. Typically, you unplug the charger and let the notebook run off battery until it automatically goes into hibernate mode. Then you connect the charger and fully charge the battery. You may need to do this deep-charge cycle twice.

It's an older laptop, about 7-8 years, so the battery is that old too and I didn't take good care of it in its early years. I'm trying to be more battery smart with it and not leaving it plugged in unless the laptop is on and currently in use. A full charge and then full discharge doesn't seem to be having any effect (especially if I don't know my true power levels.)
Since you have already deep-charge cycled the battery with no effect, and since this battery is already 7 - 8 years old, I'd say it has served you well and it is time to consider replacing it.

 

HOWEVER, since the notebook is 7 - 8 years old too, it might be time to consider a new notebook instead. You may replace the battery but you will still have a 7 - 8 year old hard drive, motherboard, monitor, etc. that may decide to fail soon too. You do have a recent backup of your data, right?

 

FTR, I rarely ever unplug the charger on my nearly 8 year old Toshiba. As an electronics technician for the past 45 years, I do not believe the warnings that keeping a charger plugged in will damage or shorten the life of the battery as long as everything is functioning properly and the battery is deep-charge cycled every so often (I do it - maybe - every 6 weeks). Years ago, in particular with NiCad batteries which suffered from significant "memory effect", keeping a charger plugged in and never allowing the battery to fully discharge would shorted the "runtime" of the battery (but not the "life" of the battery - as is often suggested).

 

Li-Ion batteries do not suffer from memory effect issues like older rechargeable battery technologies did and the only real need to do deep charge/discharge cycles is to keep the battery and battery charging/monitoring circuits in sync or calibrated. Li-Ion batteries do NOT need "conditioning". That is just a left-over term from the olden days. In fact, deep discharging a Lithium Ion battery is bad for the battery. Fortunately, notebook charging circuits know this and will put the notebook into hibernate mode before the battery is discharged too much.

 

IMO, the only reason notebook manuals still recommend users don't leave chargers plugged in is because their shysters... err... company lawyers are afraid a "faulty" charger or "faulty" battery may catch fire and burn the house down, subjecting the company to liability issues!

 

My advice is this - just use this notebook until it dies. You can also just use it as a desktop. You typically can remove the battery and just run the notebook from the charger/power supply. Then, when ready, buy a new notebook.

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With the age of the battery, I understand it's just simply past its useful life. The laptop itself might be getting old, but other than the battery, it's in rather good working condition. I'll check out some battery utilities, but I'm not expecting any miracles. Honestly, I don't really need a laptop much anymore these days so if age or battery makes it unusable, I'd be annoyed but I'd lose nothing that's already backed up on my network or has another copy on my desktop.

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I'll check out some battery utilities, but I'm not expecting any miracles.
That's wise because notebook makers generally know what they doing when they design these systems. I have never found any 3rd party battery utility that could revive a battery better than what the notebook maker provided/suggested.
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