[wellylug] Laptop Battery Problems....

Tony Wills ajwills at paradise.net.nz
Tue Sep 23 23:42:36 NZST 2003


At 17:14 23/09/03 +1200, Jethro Carr wrote:
>...When I'm using my system, the battery meter slowly goes down till 0 
>percent. This take around 1 hour or less. If I leave my system going, the 
>batter last for another 1.5 hours, but the computer reports that it's got 
>0% battery.
>This problem occurs in both windows & linux, & the hardware also reports 
>the same.
>Sometimes, the battery readings also jump. (ie: 45% - 1%)
...

I'd guess that one of the cells within the battery has died (shorted?) and 
has very little charge holding capacity, so it discharges very quickly and 
the overall battery voltage drops very rapidly but the rest of the cells 
discharge at their normal rate.   [A Nicad cell is counted as 'discharged' 
when its voltage falls to about 1V, so a 6V cell battery pack consisting of 
5 x 1.2V nicads would be discharged when it drops to 5V, if one cell is 
dead and drops to 0V the overall battery looks discharged even when all the 
rest of the cells are at 1.2V and still quite happily supplying current.]

So faulty battery - try it in a another laptop, or try another battery in 
yours ...

Still under warranty? (Was this bought new last year?) - complain to 
supplier, faulty battery ... not fit for the purpose for which it was sold 
... premature failure ...

Well that's my two cents worth :-)





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