Help! Truly awful battery life

TheCenturion

TheCenturion

TheCenturion

Soldato
Joined
18 Mar 2008
Posts
12,751
Please help OcUK.

The battery life on our laptop is awful. I just got a message saying

*Warning. 5mins (20%) remaining*

So my laptop battery life now seems to be 25mins

It used to be really good, but I think that it's become worse because my parents are always plugging it in, even if there's loads of battery left :rolleyes:

Anything I can do to save it?

Thanks
 
is it the battery that is busted, or the meter reporting false info? Let it drain completely, and do a full charge. If getting the battery drained takes 5 minutes, then your battery could be bust. But worth a try anyway.
 
I reckon your battery is knackered. How old is it?

Laptop batteries don't really like being charged constantly, I've managed to ruin one myself by doing that :D
 
Check with the manufacturers' warranty terms and conditions. Some manufacturers like Acer would only cover the battery for 6 months, but others like HP cover them for 12 months.

Unfortunately they're classed as a consumable part, and are prone to fail depending on operating environments and how often they're charged, etc etc.

Give the manufacturer a call, you may get lucky and they'll replace the battery.
 
Better stop using mine constantly plugged in then... I assumed it'd have some built in technology so that it doesn't damage the battery when it's already full.
 
Stickman said:
Better stop using mine constantly plugged in then... I assumed it'd have some built in technology so that it doesn't damage the battery when it's already full.
Click to expand...

It's the heat from the laptop that kills them not from being plugged in.
 
Ah fair enough... any problems to running a laptop with the battery removed? (other than you can't unplug it to move it)?

edit: actually, I don't wanna thread-jack so I started my own thread.
 
Leaving them plugged in all the time wont cause any problems, but if you unplug it for even 1 minute then plug it back in again, this is where the problems start, batteries need to be fully discharged and fully charged again each time or their life span will shorten, I left my laptop plugged in and turned on for 2 years, the battery lasts just as long now as it did when I first got the laptop.

You can run a laptop without the battery, you wont run into any problems.
 
Battery will be fine with constant charging aslong as you let it cycle properly atleast once every few weeks/couple of months - don't drain it completely thats also bad for it - drop it to 5% or so then fully charge.

Its likely one of the cells in the battery in the OP has become degraded resulting in it unable to put out enough power for very long to keep the laptop going - this does happen sometimes - and can't be reversed once it happens you need a new battery.
 
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