Running laptop on battery.

[gingernut]

Despite experimenting with differing power settings, my laptop battery becomes exhausted after only 10 minutes. Fine if you're travelling Virgin, (they have plugs) not so good if travelling Northern Rail (they don't).

Before forking out seventy quid on a new battery, is there anything else I'm missing? Or is there a source of cheaper batteries?

[Saab Dastard]

Has it always been like that, or is it old and worn out?

Does the PC indicate it's fully charged? I have known some circuitry fail, such that the battery reports full when it isn't, thus preventing proper charging.

10 minutes is way more of a problem than settings alone (screen brightness, wifi / bluetooth on, CPU at full power etc.) could help with.

I had a similar problem myself - no charge at all to the battery. I was fortunate enough to be able to borrow a good battery to find out if it was my battery or my laptop that was failing to charge the battery properly - turns out it was just the battery, so got a replacement.

If you can find a friendly vendor / friend to test a known good battery that would be the simplest way forward.
Otherwise, google your make and model for known battery problems (if any) - and you'll probably also find vendors at the same time.

If buying a replacement, I would be very wary of cheap unbranded alternatives - it may be better value in the end to buy the manfr's part. Caveat emptor, as they say.

SD

[x213a]

I once had this problem and solved it by updating my BIOS through the manufacturer's website.

[gingernut]

Thanks chaps, it does indicate 100% charge when charged, and the demise has ben gradual.

[Notmyreallogin]

Gingernut,

In the same boat with a Sony Battery, but it has lasted about 4 years of continuous use. Costs a lot for replacement, but I don't trust the cheap/unbranded/chinesecopy.com websites.

Of course the laptop will go terminal as soon as I've paid for the battery, but that life.

You wouldn't believe it, but I had limited success putting the battery (googled) in the freezer for a week (make sure it's totally dry before plugging in!). It doubled the batttery life, but is was 15 minutes to start with!

CBA

[Saab Dastard]

the demise has ben gradual

Almost certainly a k-nacker-ed battery.

Useful (and humorous) reading (http://www.dansdata.com/gz011.htm) about rechargeable battery packs.

SD

[SyllogismCheck]

Turning off all low and critical battery alarm actions and running until the laptop quits can help, as sometimes the battery electronics can report a low battery state to the laptop when there is still plenty of charge in the battery.

By running it truly flat and recharging, you get a genuine full cycle, which can help, and the battery's internal status monitor may realign itself with the true battery state.

My HP was reporting battery low after 30 mins, critical (and going to standby as set in alarm actions) about 2 mins later, but ran for a further hour once I switched the standby action off. The battery was fine cell wise, but confused electronically. After a few full cycles to completely dead then recharged, it's now much better.

[gingernut]

Thanks chaps, will try the alarm thing. It's now 19:44z, and the power is being unplugged.........NOW

[gingernut]

20:52z :-(

New battery I'm afraid

[gingernut]

will try e few more discharges:->

[Milt]

Don't rely on your laptop on the flight deck for calculating take off performance!!

[gingernut]

thanks chaps, turning the alarm off has extended useability bt at least 300%.:) (And still going.)

Milt, always used a book and a bit of mental maths, but I only flew a cessna.:)