Ok well i've had my laptop for about 2 years now, and the battery life has decreased a lot over the years. It only lasts about 30mins even on low power conditions. Just yesterday, i was using my laptop and decided to switch to battery mode, and the whole thing just shut off. I thought something terrible happened to my laptop, but when i stuck it back in with the ac adapter, it works fine. So now i suppose my battery is totally drained and dead.

Is it normal for the batteries to die off in just 2 years? And is it ok to leave the dead battery in my laptop? I don't like taking it out. It makes it look weird, and i don't want dust to be collecting there. I don't plan on buying a new battery anytime soon because i don't use my batteries at all. Im always using it with the adapter. Oh and one more thing i wanna ask about the batteries is, does hibernation mode use battery power? I think it does'nt right?

I guess it's the same with regular-sized (AA) rechargeable batteries, they eventually just die out when they can't hold the power in. I never took physics in high school and I hate math and chemistry, so I don't know the technicalities of it, but I would imagine the type of material used affects the duration. I bought my laptop back in September and I haven't used it on battery mode to the point where it would run out of batteries, so I would guess my laptop could last between 2-3 hours. I can also adjust between high performance and power saver modes so it varies depending on that too. I would also imagine that for older laptops, that manufacturers would provide you with a new battery every few years, but that's just a guess, dunno if they actually do that unless I ask and look around...

I took an ancient laptop to high school once, and the batteries only lasted about 10 mins -_-;

That's why your battery doesn't have a long life. You haven't used your battery at all. If you want your battery have longer life, you should use your battery, at last 6 hours a week^^
Battery would broken if you rarely use it^^

It is absolutely normal for battery to dye after two years and it doesn't matter if you were using it or not. And its probably not completely dead, it's just incapable of providing enough power to run your notebook and it still might be possible to use your battery when your laptop is in state of hibernation.

It all depends on what kind if battery you have. the batteries that last longest, that are currently readily available are niMH batteries. unlike previous batteries, they don't need to be fully discharged to restore a true full charge. there is a new, safer technology, which name escapes me at the moment, that works as well, but doesn't over heat the way niMH sometimes does.

browse through [ur=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battery_%28electricity%29]this[/url].

The most efficent batteries (apart from nuclear radiation powered ones) are Lithium batteries, and currently seem to be the ones used in many things, ranging from laptops to even electric cars. Unfortunatley though, Lithium batteries will die if not propperly maintained, and if depleted repeatedly. If you claim you have not used the battery for a long period of time, try depleting (down to 1~3% power) it several times, and fully recharging it, it might help.

But yes, Lithium batteries die out, and need to be replaced, the way you use them contributes to how fast they fail, it usually is recommended you leave the battery out when using the AC adapater to power the laptop (but I dont do that anyway).

Its been a year and a half since i bought my laptop and the battery still gives me a minimum of 2.5 hours with maximum battery usage and performance.

i guess its because i always take out my battery and keep it aside when i'm using my laptop at home (which is where it stays most of the time).

I am sorry, it is NOT normal. You should contact your computer manufacturer. I have ahd my laptop for 3 years not and the battery works just fine, I can get about 2 hours out of it. When it was new, I could get 3 hours, so it has decreased over the years, but certainly still works.

If you don't use your battery, it should be safe to just leave it in your laptop as long as your laptop doesn't try to change it.

Hibernation does NOT use batteries. Hibernation is equivilant to turning off you computer, windows just remebers it's state before being hibernated and then restores that state upon turning back on.

It's just normal for it to die out.

And I think ~0x7c2 means standby not hibernation.

Anyway, I suggest you read this article. If you're lazy then just read the guidelines at the bottom.

Its normal for laptop batteries to die. Though mine is still good for 5 hours. ;)

nawat

And I think ~0x7c2 means standby not hibernation.

It's called suspend2ram in Linux, I don't know how they call it in windows but it's that state when only you RAM id powered and rest of your laptop is turned off.

evilmaniac

If you claim you have not used the battery for a long period of time, try depleting (down to 1~3% power) it several times, and fully recharging it, it might help.

Lithium batteries don't have memory effect, so this will most likely not help. :-(

evilmaniac

it usually is recommended you leave the battery out when using the AC adapater to power the laptop (but I dont do that anyway).

Only if you have some kind of strange or stupid laptop, I think that it's not recommended to recharge your battery when it's 95% charged but almost all laptops can prevent this and there are also laptops with not-removable battery so I think this is just a myth (please correct me if I'm wrong)

0x7c2

nawat

And I think ~0x7c2 means standby not hibernation.

It's called suspend2ram in Linux, I don't know how they call it in windows but it's that state when only you RAM id powered and rest of your laptop is turned off.

I've always thought Hibernate was called the same thing in both Windows and Linux, and was when you transfer the contents of the RAM onto the hard drive and shutdown the computer completely. Apples OS X equivelent is called Deep Sleep.
(I only have my OS X box with me at the moment but I'm sure it's called Hibernate on my Fedora 8 machine)

0x7c2

evilmaniac

If you claim you have not used the battery for a long period of time, try depleting (down to 1~3% power) it several times, and fully recharging it, it might help.

Lithium batteries don't have memory effect, so this will most likely not help. :-(

Although lithium batteries don't suffer from memory problems, the estimated charge level can become inaccurate so it is worth depleting and recharging your lithium batteries occasionally.

0x7c2

evilmaniac

it usually is recommended you leave the battery out when using the AC adapater to power the laptop (but I dont do that anyway).

Only if you have some kind of strange or stupid laptop, I think that it's not recommended to recharge your battery when it's 95% charged but almost all laptops can prevent this and there are also laptops with not-removable battery so I think this is just a myth (please correct me if I'm wrong)

Lithium batteries loose their capacity if they are kept at a high charge level and in a hot environment, so being in a hot laptop while fully charged will shorten the life of the battery.

Oh ok thanks for the help. I think i'll just contact my laptop dealer and ask whether i can have it changed or not. I have a feeling that mines is faulty. T_T

My batteries are lithium btw. It used to last for up to 3 hours but suddenly the battery life dropped dramatically recently. I think it has something to do with this.

~DeepDragoon

I've always thought Hibernate was called the same thing in both Windows and Linux

OK, my mistake.

~DeepDragoon

Although lithium batteries don't suffer from memory problems, the estimated charge level can become inaccurate so it is worth depleting and recharging your lithium batteries occasionally.

But I guess this is just software problem, right?

~DeepDragoon

Lithium batteries loose their capacity if they are kept at a high charge level and in a hot environment, so being in a hot laptop while fully charged will shorten the life of the battery.

Lithium batteries don't loose capacity, they're aging. Its true that they're aging faster when kept in hot places but I guess this should not be problem unless you have poorly constructed laptop with battery placed near the CPU.

0x7c2

Lithium batteries don't loose capacity, they're aging. Its true that they're aging faster when kept in hot places but I guess this should not be problem unless you have poorly constructed laptop with battery placed near the CPU.

I was under the impression that Lithium batteries internal resistance increases due to oxidation which is accelerated if stored in a hot place at a high charge level. Which means that although it still contains a full charge it cannot deliver it all. So the battery in effect has lost capacity as far as the length of time it will run the laptop (Think that's correct, it's been a while since I last did much chemistry + electronics).

My laptops battery used to get pretty hot even though the only parts it's close to are the hard drive and optical drive, though parts of the laptop (outer casing) are regularly too hot to touch for more than a second or two. It was good for keeping drinks warm and for warming up your hands in the winter though. It's battery was completely useless after a year and of course batteries are generally not covered by the warranty unless faulty, which it technically wasn't.

Now with a new battery, linux with various power saving tweaks and a slightly modified cooling system, it's running a lot cooler and it's battery life is the best it's ever been. Sadly it is no longer useful as a hand/drink warmer.