Laptop Battery Life Not As Advertised

[denzlite]

I realize laptop manufacturers inflate battery life, but I'm only getting 2.5 hours on my Toshiba Satellite M645-S4045 - they advertise the life at 5 hours. Is this common? - or is it something that I need to contact Toshiba support? I got it from Amazon - I'd hate to go through the hassle of getting it replaced, but there is still time.


Advice?

 

[COLGeek]

The ways vendors measure laptop battery life and the way you are using it are likely vastly different. If you allowed the system to operate in a max savings mode, turned off your wireless, dimmed your display, etc, you would increase battery life.

If you are watching movies, running background apps, cruising the net via wi-fi you will have less time.

If you are getting 2.5 hrs while doing these sorts of things, you are probably doing well and shouldn't worry about it. Good luck!

 

[dassox]

A lot of the time laptops have a bios option to run a battery test. It will fill the battery to 100%, then drain it to 0% and then refill it to 100%, this is done to test the capacity of the battery and condition it to regain lost capacity. It will also give you a reading on the capacity, and if that number is far off of what is quoted for you laptop then I would look into returning it.

It might be that one of the cells of your battery is bad, although typically windows detects that sort of thing and alerts you to the issue.

 

[denzlite]

Ok. Great thanks. I wanted to know if this was a typical experience. Makes my paranoia go away. Thanks again.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Best answer selected by mousemonkey.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey