laptop batteries naturally degrade?

Forums › Laptops and mobile computers › laptop batteries naturally degrade?

richgamer

224 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#20745 4-Apr-2008 16:27

i bought a new laptop one year ago and the battery used to last 2 hours but now it seems to last 1 hour. i thought newer batteries don't do this? mainly i keep my laptop plugged into the power socket so i guess the battery is always full but sometimes i use the laptop with only the battery. if you yourself have a laptop how long did your battery last when you first bought it and how long does it last now?

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
8476 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#121128 4-Apr-2008 16:52

Batteries do definitley degrade over time. If it happens too quickly, you may have a case under the CGA if it applies to you.

Does your manufacturer provide a utility to completely drain your battery? If so, use it, drain the battery, charge overnight, and see if that makes a difference.

captainsteve

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#123795 15-Apr-2008 20:00

i'm having the same problems at the moment with my laptop. HP arent being very helpful at all, since i'm 6 months out of my 1yr warranty. might have to go back to harvey normans and give them a go..

I'dlike to her if anyone else had this problem and resolved it?

tonyhughes

Hawkes Bay
8476 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6

Retired Mod

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#123803 15-Apr-2008 20:15

captainsteve: i'm having the same problems at the moment with my laptop. HP arent being very helpful at all, since i'm 6 months out of my 1yr warranty. might have to go back to harvey normans and give them a go..

I'dlike to her if anyone else had this problem and resolved it?

Batteries do definitley degrade over time. If it happens too quickly, you may have a case under the CGA if it applies to you.

Does your manufacturer provide a utility to completely drain your battery? If so, use it, drain the battery, charge overnight, and see if that makes a difference.

######

18 months does seem quite short, but batteries typically will not last much longer than this before capacity starts decreasing. See above advice.

corksta

2405 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 382

Trusted

Subscriber

#123809 15-Apr-2008 20:23

If you're going to run your laptop on AC power only, then remove the battery. This is one way to help make the battery last longer, but a lot of it comes down to how often you recharge/discharge the battery, which dictates how long it lasts.

You can use this link to check the status of your battery:

http://h20239.www2.hp.com/techcenter/battery/battery_ts.htm

alasta

6888 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 3362

Trusted

Subscriber

#123812 15-Apr-2008 20:29

I recently read somewhere that lithium ion batteries (typically fitted to all modern notebooks) lose at least 20% of their capacity every year regardless of how much they are used. A heavily used battery will lose more than 20% of its capacity in a year.

Based on that I would say that anyone who owns a notebook should budget to replace their battery every 18 - 24 months.

Batman

Mad Scientist
30012 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 6217

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#123887 16-Apr-2008 01:18

now this has to be a luck thing. some batteries seem to go on forever (a bit like celine dion and titanic) and some just - kapoot! sorry if it doesnt help the thread ... cant help it - just my 1.12cents!

Lego

Shop now for Lego sets and other gifts (affiliate link).

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9996

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#123901 16-Apr-2008 08:10

The reality of every rechargeable battery is that it will only handle a finite number of charge cycles. For different technologies this varies but you're typically looking at around 300 - 700 cycles. Lithium Ion batteries also have a finate life from the time of manufacture which also varies but is between 3 - 5 years.

The reality is that if you're using a laptop every day and charging it every day that you can really only expect a life of maybe 12-18 months maximum before you will need to replace the battery. The same applies with modern cellphones with Lithium Ion batteries