"Consider Replacing Your Battery"

webdevbrian said:

You don't think it's this mysterious "Windows 7 Consider Replacing Your Battery" thing that got publicity earlier this year?

A bunch of websites have articles about it, CNET, Wired, Engadget ...

Windows 7 gets information about the battery from the hardware. This information is readonly. If Windows 7 is getting the wrong information it is either a problem with the battery, problem with the motherboard, or problem with the hardware-specific drivers. Windows only knows what the hardware tells it.

The problem people spoke of "last year" was not a problem. They were confused, because when they were running XP or Vista they never got this notification until they upgraded to Windows 7. But you see, this notification is new in Windows 7, that is why they did not see it before the upgrade.

If there was in fact a problem with batteries and Windows 7, every computer would be having problems. But they are not! This is a hardware problem, because windows only knows what the hardware tells it. This battery issue is no different, the information to gauge the life of the battery comes from and is stored on the battery itself. And Windows cannot modify any of the information stored on the battery. Period.

ioudas said:

Warning (i destroyed one battery this way):
If you discharge the battery compeletely, a small control circuit inside the battery (handles cut-off when charged) will lose power and stop working - blocking any further attempts to charge the battery.
So, whatever method you use (i used a small auto bulb connected directly to battery pins) make sure you leave small charge in the battery.

good luck

A better way to discharge the battery and safer is to; leave the battery in the laptop (notebook, netbook, etc) reboot the machine and enter BIOS. Leave the computer on the BIOS screen and go to bed. The battery will be completely drained in the morning without damaging the battery. The battery will shut off safely because it is in the laptop. - WS

ioudas said:

WindowsStar said:

A better way to discharge the battery and safer is to; leave the battery in the laptop (notebook, netbook, etc) reboot the machine and enter BIOS. Leave the computer on the BIOS screen and go to bed. The battery will be completely drained in the morning without damaging the battery. The battery will shut off safely because it is in the laptop. - WS

Actually you dont need to go to bios, if you disable the acpi in windows, it'll also shutdown only when there isn't enought power. But this method doesn't work because your computer is putting too much load on the battery and it shuts down MUCH sooner then the battery can be considered empty.

The only way is to drain it slowly using bulb or other low load device. If you don't want to mess with battery pins, you can put the computer to sleep and plug in power draining device into usb. I used laptop cooloing pad, but it took well over 24 hours to drain the "empty" battery.

IMHO:

However if you disable ACPI then you have to be in Windows for the machine to shutdown giving Windows a Hard (Power Off) shutdown. Not good. Plus you have to remember to turn on ACPI, which some will forget.

Leaving the machine on the BIOS screen does a slow run down of the battery because the only thing really running is the LCD display. This is so simple, it does not tamper with Windows Settings, nothing to forget, nothing to change; when done just plug in the charger and charge the battery.

Using the bulb is good, except:

1) Most people will not know how to do it correctly.
2) The bulb can be dangerous because you can discharge the battery too much.

We have done the BIOS drain on batteries for years with laptops and it has worked well, again do to the safety built into the laptop and the battery. The battery will be discharged almost too maximum discharge. -WS

Pusspa said:

my battery went from 3 hours of use on Vista to now about 10 minutes if i am lucky, with the only change being installing windows 7. from reading this (and other googled) threads, i am now scared that if i buy a new battery ($90 on ebay up to $200 from HP), i will just end up with two dead batteries. can anyone confirm that replacing the battery really will fix the problem for the expected 2-3 year life i have previously experienced since winXP - Vista?

EDIT: do you mean disable in device manager, or remove in this post:

ioudas said:

...Then turn off "microsoft acpi-compliant control method battery". Turn off laptop, put in battery, turn in back on and enable the "microsft-acpi"...

I have replaced several batteries on machines with Windows 7 and the problem typically comes back quickly.

Using some method to drain the battery to near maximum seems to kick start the battery all over again. We have our end users do the BIOS trick as explained here, works for us, but that is IMHO, others have noted ways to drain the battery, I assume they work well too. -WS

Pusspa said:

well i am going to find out if the problem really was just the old battery, i bought a non-genuine 12 cell replacement (brand new), and power brick. It is just charging now for the first time, and heres hoping i dont have to quote this post with a complaint at some near future date!

Don't forget about: BatteryCare

It can give you some great information to post back here. Thanks!