Battery Calibration Not Working

[Lezul]

Hello all,

I've had my Gigabyte U2442N for a little over 2 years now and today, I noticed that my laptop battery died when it was at ~70% when unplugged. I've also noticed for the last few weeks now that my battery hasn't been charging over ~90%. I looked online on how to re-calibrate a laptop battery (run the laptop until it's empty and press the power button until it won't turn on; then plug and boot), but it hasn't worked. When I booted up my laptop again it was again at ~70%. The next few times I tried calibrating the battery, the laptop shuts down between ~40% and ~70% and still never charges more than around 92% even if I leave it plugged in over the weekend.

Any tips on how to fix this problem? I don't require a new and longer lasting battery as I rarely have my laptop unplugged for more than 2 hours but I would like to be able to accurately determine my battery level so I get warnings and know when to save.

Thanks in advance!

My Specs:
Gigabyte U2442N
Windows 8.1 Pro 64-Bit
Intel Core i5-3210M 2.5GHz
8 GB RAM
Intel HD Graphics 4000 + NVIDIA GT 640M

 

[hang-the-9]

It's probably a bad battery, although the steps to recalibrate it can vary from model to model. If you have the laptop plugged in most of the time and have the battery in it, it will shorten it's life a lot faster than if you used it off power. If you have it plugged in all the time, remove the battery.

 

[Lezul]

It's probably a bad battery, although the steps to recalibrate it can vary from model to model. If you have the laptop plugged in most of the time and have the battery in it, it will shorten it's life a lot faster than if you used it off power. If you have it plugged in all the time, remove the battery.

Does a bad battery make Windows unable to accurately read the battery levels? I don't mind that the battery life isn't that great anymore (and don't expect it to as I've had this laptop for a bit over 2 years now) but I just want to be able to read my battery level accurately so that I have some warning before my laptop suddenly shuts down.

Also, I am unable to remove the battery (well able but it involves removing 22 screws, 2 covers and unplugging some wires) so I don't bother with removing the battery when I have it plugged in and haven't tried unplugging and re-plugging the battery to see if it helps fix the problem.

 

[hang-the-9]

Yes bad battery can do that, you can try a BIOS update to see if that helps.

I have a system I'm working on now actually to fix up that was doing the same thing, battery reads as half charged even though I ran the battery calibration. Replaced the battery, went to 100% like it should.

 

[Lezul]

Yes bad battery can do that, you can try a BIOS update to see if that helps.

I have a system I'm working on now actually to fix up that was doing the same thing, battery reads as half charged even though I ran the battery calibration. Replaced the battery, went to 100% like it should.

My laptop for some reason is unable to do BIOS Updates as running the executable gives me some strange error messages. I've contacted Gigabyte twice but it's been a year since their last reply so I guess they're ignoring me now.

Shame that there is no other way to fix the problem via software as I don't really want to spend 150-200€ for a new battery for a laptop I'll replace in 1 or 2 years. I guess I'll just tell power options to give me a low battery warning at 70% and just save after every sentence.

Thanks for the help!