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The Ultimate Guide To Laptop Battery Health And Power Tips

Do you know how to keep your laptop battery healthy? Learn about laptop battery health or it can cost you more in the long run. Read more.

 

Laptop Battery Health And Power Tips

Introduction: How To Know The State Of Your Laptop Battery

If you want to know the state of your laptop battery health, there are a few things you will need to do. First, check the battery life. This will tell you how much time your laptop can function without being plugged in.

There are two ways to find out about the health of your laptop battery: soft and hard. Soft refers to a software solution that tells you the condition of your battery cells. And helps to extend their lifespan by turning off power-hungry features when they're not needed. Hard refers to a hardware solution that periodically measures the voltage level going through each cell. And reports back with a judgment call on its performance.



How to Check Your Laptop Battery Health in Windows 10

In order to check your battery health, you can use software provided by your brand. Some brands provide it and others do not. Generally older laptops used to come without it. If you can not find such kind of software you can read the below steps. 

Before getting the report first you need to generate it.
Laptop Battery Health Report


Step1: Search Windows PowerShell in windows start, Run it as administrator
Step2: When it starts, type or paste powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\battery-report.html" and hit enter.
Step3: Search the generated battery report and saved in your computer.
Go to C drive and find html file named battery-report.html

Lets understand the battery report-
  1. The first step is to open your laptop's Battery Report in Windows 10,
  2. Scroll down to where it shows you your battery's name, design capacity, and design capacity percentage in the lower-left corner of the screen. If you want to be more precise about your health status, scroll up to see how many charging cycles your battery has gone through--but this information isn't necessary for determining if your battery needs replacement or not.
  3. If you notice that your battery design capacity percentage is under or barely over 60%, this would be a red flag that it needs replacement soon, as manufacturers typically recommend changing out a laptop's battery when it dips below 60% of its original charge capacity. 

What Is The Best Way To Extend The Life & Capacity Of Your Laptop Battery?

If you want to extend the life of your laptop, there are a few things you can do. 

  • The first thing is to keep it charged in between uses. This will prevent the battery from running out in the middle of a task. 
  • You should also set a power management plan that automatically turns off when the laptop is idle for a specific amount of time.
  • Plugging in your laptop to an electrical outlet as soon as you start using it will immediately begin charging the battery, and prevent it from entering Standby mode. Standby mode causes the battery to discharge power into the laptop and shortens its life.
  •  If your laptop is powered on and plugged in, and the battery is starting to drain, you'll see the red light on the laptop come on. At this point, you can either close the laptop to keep working while the battery recharges, or take the opportunity to let it charge while you take a break.
  • Overheating is the number one reason why laptop batteries die. Make sure that you do not leave your laptop in the car or inside the house when the outside temperature is above 55 degrees Celsius. Another way to extend the life of your laptop battery is to use the laptop with the power adapter included with your laptop.

Setting Up Battery Charge Limit

Overcharging is one the biggest issue, harming your battery. Since lithium ion batteries degrade upon overcharging. But this is concern only for older laptops. In modern days companies have already built mechanism to prevent overcharging. Such as slow charging after a limit or completely shutting it off.

If your laptop does not have this feature then you can use third party software. There are lot of third-party software over internet. Here I will be telling you safest and best way. Basically using a windows script. A .vbs file

This script warns you with dialog box when a limit set by you is achieved.
Setting Up Battery Charge Limit


Download Script
You can either run this script every time you use it or set is for autorun.

Edit the line if bCharging and (iPercent > 80) according to your desired % value


For Autorun
Save this file to a safe folder, and create a ‘shortcut’ for it. Paste the shortcut in your Startup folder (Start > All Programs > Startup & then, right-click to Open) as you need it to run automatically.

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How Long Should You Leave A Laptop Plugged In When Fully Charged?

This is a question that many people have, but it's also one that not many people have the answer to. The answer you're looking for will depend on what type of laptop you have.
Some laptops will automatically go into sleep mode if they are plugged in, while others will continue charging until they reach 100%. It's important to know how your laptop charges so that you don't discharge the battery too quickly or leave it plugged in for too long.
The laptop's battery can be damaged by leaving it plugged in when fully charged. Leaving the laptop plugged in for too long when it is fully charged can cause the battery to wear out quickly.


How Can You Tell If Your Battery Is Dead Or Just Unplugged?

If your laptop is plugged in and you can't see any lights on the screen, you should check to make sure it isn't just unplugged. Check the power cord and the charger. Make sure that the outlet is working.
You should also check to make sure that your laptop isn't just dead. If it's been off for a really long time, then the battery might have gone all flat and need charging up again first before coming back to life!

At times when batteries runs off, then laptop charging shows a sign-

Plugged in, not charging

If you get this, it means your battery is about to die. Get it replaced soon.

FAQ

  • The answer to this question depends on the laptop model and type of your battery. The most common laptop batteries are lithium-ion batteries. They come in various sizes, but the average battery life is between three to five hours, depending on the tasks you are doing with your laptop.

  • To test your laptop battery health, use a battery health checker on your Windows PC. If your laptop brand does not provide it, then you can use command prompt to know your battery health. This article will help you on how to test the health of your windows laptop battery.
  • Most of the batteries are of Li-ion which means they can be charged to approximately 80% of their capacity. Now, fully discharging of the batteries is harmful to the batteries. So, the best way to keep your battery healthy is, charge it almost to 80% and then use it till 20% of the charge remains. Charging the battery again to 100% after 20% decrease in charge is also ideal. If you can do this, your battery will last longer than you expect.
  • If the laptop is plugged in, then it's perfectly fine to use the laptop. However, if the laptop is plugged in, then the excess power supplied by the wall socket is left unused and drains your batteries to a point where you will be able to use your laptop for just a few minutes before it runs out of power. Therefore, the best practice is to unplug your laptop when it's not in use.

Conclusion: Tips And Recommendations For Maintaining A Laptop Battery

If you take good care of your lithium-ion battery, you won’t have any problems with it. All you need to do is keep it clean and store it properly. The best way to clean the battery is by using a damp cloth. And wiping down all of its surfaces gently. You should avoid scrubbing or wiping too hard. Since it can damage the surface of the cells, which will then decrease their lifespan

The battery should not be stored at full charge because this will lead to the battery being overcharged. If the battery is stored at full charge for too long, there is a chance that its capacity will be decreased. So make sure that you store your lithium-ion battery at a 40% charge or less if you are not using it for an extended period of time.

Thanks for reading the article, if you have any queries then do comment below.

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