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Laptop battery life

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by tabcomputers2002 2 views

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I have a gateway 400vtx laptop. I have an odd problem with the storage life of the battery. I fully charged the system 7 days ago, when I used it last night, the battery life was down to 67%. I've checked the setting for shutdown in windows xp, and "when powerbutton is pressed turn off" is my defaul option. I've checked the bios (pheonix - not sure of the version number), but I can't find any power options. The system is only a year old.

I'd be greatful for any suggestions of what to check before I call Gateway.

Thanks
Tim

7 replies

by chud

This could be related to what type of battery you have in your laptop. Newer laptops tend to be supplied with Li-Ion batteries which give better performance and last longer as they do not to a great degree suffer from the memory effect. Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) are the next step down, they suffer to a degree from the memory effect but not as badly (and often not irreversably) as the lowest rung on the ladder Nickel Cadmium or NiCad batteries. Whatever battery you have my suggestion is as follows - fully deplete the battery by running the laptop 'unplugged', recharge it to full charge with the laptop powered down - repeat 3 times this may (if you have NiMH or Li-Ion) help the situation. Unfortunately with NiCad batteries the memory effect is normally permanent but it is unlikely that you have one of these given the age of the system.

by haileyan

23% ...and I would not consider that abnormal. What I would do is leave it turned on and unplugged starting with a full charge. See if the battery lasts as long as the manufacturer states it should last. If it does not last any where near as long as it should they will replace it if it is still under warranty.

by tabcomputers2002

Thanks for the math help. Glad I work in the bank. LOL. I'm going to try to deplete, recharge a couple times. A couple friends suggested the battery may be "remembering" a false 100%, making it think it's drained lower than it actually has. Thanks.

Tim

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