How to Know When It's Time to Replace Your Laptop's Battery

does this well, displaying the battery’s approximate wear level, the capacity it was designed to have, and the capacity it currently has. You can find this third party tool at http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/battery_information_view.html An example of Battery Info View’s results can be seen in a screen shot at the http://www.howtogeek.com/172362/how-to-know-when-its-time-to-replace-your-la ptops-battery/below link. in the above mentioned screenshot, we see that the battery was designed to hold 86,580 mWh of energy. However, the battery’s current capacity at full charge is only 61,261 mWh. In other words, the laptop’s battery only holds 70.8% of its original capacity when fully charged. Some batteries may display more information, such as the number of charge and discharge cycles they’ve been through. Calibrating Your Battery How to Calibrate Your Laptop’s Battery For Accurate Battery Life Estimates So you’re using your laptop and, all of the sudden, it dies. There was no battery warning from Windows. (I will post an article on “how to Calibrate your battery”on Friday October 11.) The information above may not be completely accurate if your battery requires calibration. For example, we had a battery that reported it was almost dead. Windows warned us that it was time to replace the battery and the battery appeared to be at 27.7% wear level according to its reported capacity. After we calibrated the battery , Windows stopped warning us and the battery’s reported capacity went back up to 70.8%. The battery didn’t actually gain any additional charge, but the calibration helped the battery’s sensor actually detect how much capacity was in the battery. If Windows says it’s time to replace your battery, be sure to calibrate it first before checking its actual wear level. If you don’t, you may replace a battery that’s still in good enough shape. That would just be a waste of money. Why Your Laptop’s Battery Capacity Declines Batteries need to be cared for properly – they’re a critical part of our mobile devices and battery technology. Laptop batteries decline due to a number of factors. Heat, usage, age – all of these things are bad for batteries. Batteries will slowly die no matter what – even if you put your battery in a closet and never touched it, it would slowly lose capacity due to age. However, if you never use your battery – say you use your laptop at your desk most of the time and it gets rather hot, which is bad for the battery – removing the battery can certainly help prolong its life. To make your laptop’s battery last longer, read the explanation of battery life myths and facts to be posted on Friday October 11 2013, to know what works and what doesn’t. Replacing Your Battery If your laptop has a user-serviceable battery – that is, one you can remove on your own – you can replace your battery fairly easily. If your laptop doesn’t have a user-serviceable battery, you’ll need to contact the laptop’s manufacturer so they can crack your laptop open and change its battery for you. Assuming you have a user-serviceable battery, you can order a replacement battery for your laptop model online. Don’t just head to eBay and buy the cheapest third-party batteries available – buy official batteries from a reputable company. Aftermarket batteries are often built on the cheap, with cut corners and insufficient testing. They can be dangerous – a cheap, counterfeit, and improperly designed battery could literally go up in flames. There’s no point in obsessing over your battery’s capacity, it was designed to be used, after all, but it’s something to keep one eye on. If your capacity is dropping more quickly than you’d like, that may be a sign that you should be treating your battery better. Perhaps you’re exposing it to too much heat if you leave your battery in while playing demanding, strenuous PC games on your laptop.]]>