Windows 7 - Windows 7 doesn't notify me when my battery is running low

Hi,

I use Windows 7 on my Toshiba A210-1C4 laptop. Mostly I use my laptop plugged in at my desk but I usually try to unplug and use it occasionally to extend it's life.

However now it doesn't appear to be making the critical battery noise or popping up with the message that the battery is low. This is annoying because the computer then hibernates which takes ages.

Are there any settings I can check or things that might be interfering with the messages? This doesn't happen all the time but most of the time.

Thanks in advance,
Caleb

Hello caleb97,

click once on the battery icon in your notification area and select More power options.
Click on Change plan settings next to your currently active power plan.
Finally, click on Change advanced power settings.

A small window will pop up which allows you to edit all the details of the power plan. Scroll all the way down until you see Battery and expand the tree. Here you can set the percentages at which to trigger "low battery" and "critical battery" events, and whether you want a notification or a specific action to be performed.

This should solve your issue; if you still have problems please post back with any questions you may have.


On a side note, how often do you let your battery discharge and recharge?
It can actually cause it to wear out faster in the long term; also with modern lithium-ion batteries it's not necessary to completely run them empty. They will tolerate partial discharge/recharge cycles very well.
Just don't do it every other day or so - once a couple weeks or once a month is fine.

Thanks for replying Corazon,

I've checked all of the settings and they seem to be ok. Is there anything that might be interfering with these messages?

I tend discharge the battery once or twice a month. Not sure I'll bother any more then. I think my laptop uses a Lithium Ion battery, it's 3 years old.

Caleb

It's well possible your battery is simply getting too old and losing capacity. As a result your system might be forced to hibernate before it has a chance to give you a low-battery warning.

For now, you could try increasing the percentage value for the low-battery warning (maybe even to 50% just to see if it works once the charge reaches 50%).

But in the long run, you may be better off simply replacing the battery. At 3 years you've already had a pretty good run - my own laptop battery is just under 3 years old and pretty much shot.

Thanks for your help again Corazon,

I've increased the low battery warning to 20%. Hopefully this should rectify the problem.

Sounds good to me. Let me know if that helps.