The run-time that a battery can provide, once fully charged, is based more on how it is being used and what components it’s powering. New laptops, with normal day-to-day usage, can provide 4-8 hrs of battery life. Whereas the time period decreases as the laptop ages and usage intensifies.Battery draining more than normal, sudden turn-offs, percentage shifts, etc., are some indicators of the degraded battery condition. Nevertheless, this article will help you get a clearer picture of the condition and age of your laptop battery, additionally addressing methods to improve laptop battery health status.
How Long is Your Current Battery Life?
As already mentioned, the run time reciprocated by a fully charged battery depends upon the battery capacity and type of usage. If you use applications that consume PC resources extensively, like 3D games, editing software, etc., you will lose battery percentage faster. But with normal usage, you will get higher battery life. Incorporating the battery capacity and usage factors at an instance, you will be able to get an estimated run-time for your battery. The steps to do so will include the following:If you check the estimated time around the full charge of your battery and under ideal conditions, you can find the overall battery run time.
Factors Affecting Battery Life
A heated operating environment is a major area affecting battery life. Heat acts as a catalyst for various unwanted chemical reactions within the battery, causing gas emissions, corrosions, electrolytic dissipation, etc. It reduces battery capacity or even leads to premature battery failures.A 20-degree Fahrenheit of increased temperature than the recommended temperature for the battery is supposed to reduce its battery life by more or less than 50%. Thus, it is always better to use your laptop at a suitable temperature as recommended by the manufacturer. Moreover, moisture and lower temperatures would also equally impact the battery life. Also, modern-day Lithium-ion batteries are packed with liquid electrolytes, they deplete with every charge cycle by heating up and solidifying the electrolyte. Any battery comes with a certain number of bearable charge cycles. And the number reduces with each charging session. An average lithium-ion battery lasts anywhere from 500-1500 charge cycles. But, its number increases or decreases depending upon the DoD (depth of discharge). For example, if a battery is recharged every time from 80% capacity, it might last for 1200 charge cycles(assumption). However, if you recharge it from 40%, the charge cycle number would be around 600.
This factor is quite inevitable because you cannot just simply reduce the number of charge cycles. But rather than plugging your battery at any possible time, you can try a much better approach. In ideal situations, keeping the charge around 50%-60% is best because it would be a stable point for a running battery. As it won’t be practically feasible, you can try to maintain a percentage of 30-80% and charge accordingly.
How Long Will Your Laptop Battery Last?
Let’s say you have a decent battery run time, but that’s not its full capacity as it was designed to be. And no matter how many precautions you take, your battery is going to deteriorate with time because not all factors are under one’s control. So, how long is it going to last? And what is its current health status? To address the queries, we have mentioned some methods which you can follow:
From Command Prompt
Windows has got an inbuilt command line, i.e.,powercfg.exe, to manage the device’s power settings. It communicates with device drivers to control power configuration as commanded. And it’s one parameter /batteryreport that is able to provide a full report related to run-time and usage of your battery.You can follow the given steps to utilize the command and check the health status of your battery:The DESIGN CAPACITY is the battery’s actual capacity at the time it was manufactured. And FULL CHARGE CAPACITY is your battery capacity at the moment. With the difference between these with respect to the usage period of your laptop, you will get a tentative idea of battery life.In the example shown here, the design capacity is 58,751 mWh, but currently, the full capacity seems to be 34,819 mWh. Now, if the age of the laptop is around 2 years, then it is expected to last 2.5 years (approx) further before it goes completely unusable without a constant power supply.Furthermore, if you want to view details of day-to-day battery capacity degradation, you can scroll to sections like Battery life estimates.Tip: By using a simple expression[(FULL CHARGE CAPACITY/DESIGN CAPACITY)*100%], you can calculate the current capacity of your battery.
From BIOS
Though not so specifically as in the above section, the battery condition can be looked at from the BIOS. Some legacy BIOS and most of the UEFI BIOS from motherboard manufacturers can provide such features. BIOS generally provides the analogy of battery condition in terms like Excellent, Good, Bad, etc. The steps to check battery health from BIOS may differ according to motherboards, but generalized steps include:
OEM Specific Tools
Some manufacturers provide users with tools to monitor the health status of various devices within their computers. Dell Assist, Acer care center, etc., are examples of such OEM tools that are capable of showing the condition of your battery. You will be able to find the software from your manufacturer by searching online
When Should You Replace Your Battery?
The answer to this would be when you find it’s necessary. In other words, if the battery run-time isn’t able to support your average session period, it would be better to replace the battery. But, sometimes, batteries get puffed due to the release of internal gases. In such a case, you should consider immediately replacing your battery, even if it’s providing you with a workable run-time.Although illegitimate replacement would be inexpensive, it’s risky because it doesn’t guarantee any safety. Thus, we recommend contacting official support, like the manufacturer’s service centers, to replace your laptop battery.
