Laptop Battery Life Lasts Half as Long Overnight

[oobe_banoobe]

Hello,

I stumbled on a problem this morning with my laptop battery life. Its always been pretty low...about 1 hour 15 minutes...but just this morning I started it up on battery power and my battery gauge stated about 40 minutes. Running Windows 7 and my gauge also says "Consider Replacing Your Battery...There is a Problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down automatically."

Some back info, my laptop is now 2 years old, it is the Asus G51vx I believe. Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, 4gb Ram, Nvidia Geforce Gtx 260m 1gb.

I am just a little confused about how my battery lasted over an hour yesterday and when I turned it on today it all of a sudden degraded to half capacity as before. It still states 100% charged but uses power at double the rate. Wondering if anyone might know what is happening. I am concerned that yesterday, I lost power to my apartment 3 separate times. Twice the laptop was plugged in but in Hibernation, and the third, I was playing a game when my power went out, went to battery power, then power came back on. It wasn't connected to a surge protector so I am concerned it may have harmed the battery.

Thanks for any help!

 

[dextermat]

Hi,


Yep, Laptop battery life is about 1 year, after that you see problems like that.

Most of the time the battery tell you it's full and then drop to 20% and then 5 min later tell you to plug in the laptop.

You can look at amazon.com for cheap battery replacement.

 

[oobe_banoobe]

It just seemed so instant, but if I think about it, my old laptop has a battery that lasts a mere 10 minutes and it about 6 years old now, and I guess I never thought about it as much because it was on Windows XP, which doesn't have a notification like Windows 7 that says "You should consider replacing your battery."

I think I found the right battery, a 9 cell vs the current 6 cell I have, but I was wondering if I would need a new AC Adapter if changing from a 6 cell to a 9 cell? I may get a new one just because the one I have was showing signs of needing replacement such as poor connection, just not sure if I would need a different one for a higher capacity battery.

Thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Chainzsaw]

Laptops batterys lose about 20% capacity a year. It can be higher or lower depending on how much you use them.

There was an article I read a while on Toms or somewhere else about lithium ion batteries. There can be varying degerees of quality of batteries even between the same laptop models.

As for the 9 cell vs 6 cell, all the 9 cell does is provide you with more juice. As long as the battery states it will fit in your laptop, you should be fine. Also you shouldn't need a new AC adapter as the laptop itself usually charges the battery (via motherboard).

You would only need a new AC adapter if the current one your using broke.

 

[oobe_banoobe]

So losing 20% loss per year makes sense to me, but what about the seemingly instant loss in battery capacity overnight. Yesterday I was using my laptop and it was getting my normal life at just over an hour. Then this morning I started to use it and experienced an immediate loss of battery life down to the 30-40 minutes on a full charge.

Seems very strange to me, but I guess buying a new battery is what I need to do.

 

[Chainzsaw]

It happens. Maybe a lithium cell might have been dieing, and you just happened to see the loss.

 

[oobe_banoobe]

Ah that might make sense. Also, I was fiddling around with my AC Adapter to see why there have been poor connections, and noticed that it isn't where the power cord plugs into the Adapter, nor is it where the power cord connects to the laptop, but where the cord running from the laptop to the AC Adapter connects to the adapter. The fixed cord is loose. I know I have tripped over my cord here and there so basically my adapter is slowly falling apart.

I don't know a lot about it, but would a faulty AC Adapter cause any damage to a battery?

Also like you mentioned about loosing a lithium cell, is there any way to check or test the cells in a battery?

 

[Chainzsaw]

It is possible a faulty AC adapter can cause poor charging/kill the battery (frayed wires, AC adapter getting too hot). But you would probably notice it much more if it really has gone bad.

As for the cells in a lithium battery...I don't think there is a way to check them.

Do not try and open the lithium battery - it is highly toxic and dangerous to humans.

 

[internetlad]

could be that you were using it for especially battery-intensive purposes as well. IE turning up brightness/contrast, running music, or worse, video, anything that would work the proc/RAM. Depending on what you're doing the power could be sipped or it could be chugged.

Of course like some other users said, it could certainly just be that you noticed it now and it's been dwindling slowly for a while. Might very well be one of those "wait, what?" moments we all have.

Hop on eBay or Amazon and compare prices, battery prices are surprisingly competative on Amazon. Buy a new one, and if you feel the need, one for a backup. They're not that expensive and if you use your laptop on long drives or flights without an adapter it's worth it.

And yes, you will notice a marked increase in life from a 6 to a 9 cell. There is very little to distinguish one LIon battery from another besides the size. It will be bigger but will compensate by jutting out the back or creating a tilty stand that the battery uses. If it has the raised stand on the bottom then not only does it increase battery life, but it can increase airflow as well, as it opens up space between the table and the vent.

 

[oobe_banoobe]

I know that the life hasn't been dwindling slowly. I have actually noticed the slow dwindling of life in the battery for the past year, but the loss of a cell seems to have the most merit to explain why it all of a sudden lost capacity. I found a 9 cell on Amazon for about $50 and a new adapter for around $25, might be able to find a cheaper one.

I might go with a normal 6 cell though since I really don't use the laptop on battery power for more than an hour or so at a time, but depending on the price, I might just grab a 9 cell if its only $5 more or something. I also found like 3 of the same battery on Amazon, from the same seller, for 3 different prices...strange...

 

[internetlad]

in my experience the 9 cells are about incrementally (2:3 or 6:9) as expensive. Like i had said before it's the same tech but a larger battery. Odd that you'd find the same battery from the same guy for different amounts, maybe he listed them wrong and didn't delete or updated them improperly. or something. i don't know.

 

[oobe_banoobe]

Best answer selected by oobe_banoobe.

 

[sambattery]

 

[sambattery]

In my opinion, you can buy a whole new laptop battery, and it isn't very expensive now. cbattey.net.

 

[cats_Paw]

Wrong guys, laptop life depends on the use and storage.

Google Li-ION battery, and read up.

It turns out, if fully charged then battery life drops 20% each year. However if 60-40% charged, it loses about 2% each year. Heat is also negative for the battery life.

Best temperature is between 0 and -20 C but i dont adivese putting it in a frezzer anyway (condensation).

IMPORTANT: If you do keep it in the frezzer, make sure you give it time to warm up to ambient temperature before turning it on inside the laptop, or the chamicals inside the battery might even kill it in worst case scenarios.

This means, that if possible, you should have your battery unplugged at about 50% charged, and only use it on travel.

Another option (to increase battery life but use it normally) is to get some sort of software that will block battery recharge over a certain point (60%?) and start charging at a ceratin point as well (55%?). This way you give the smallest gap for the battery to either WORK or be STORED in an unhealthy charge.

 

[internetlad]

well yeah, but who the hell runs into the room every 10 minutes to check if the laptop is 50% charged.

Besides, most new laptops will start to slow down the charge time once they hit 80-90%, improving battery life that way.

When you're talking about a years use on a 50 dollar(ish, third party) item, I wouldn't even bother babysitting it.

 

[sambattery]

Asus G51Vx laptop batteries, Replacement Asus G51Vx battery, Asus G51Vx cheap laptop battery here: http/www.cheapaubatteries.com/asus-g51vx.html

 

[thirdshopping]

your battery is too old,now there are many memory in it,so you can change a new one ,or you can reactive it.

 

[internetlad]

THREADRES!