Brand new W7 laptop but battery lasts less than hour!

Wondering if you can give me some advice here folks. I have a brand new laptop (since last Thursday) with Home Premium pre-installed and really happy with it. It's an HP Compaq CQ61, and I'm not suggesting it's the most powerful laptop (AMD Athlon Dual Core M320) but I'm happy with it. Just one problem and I'm reluctant to take it back if it is not really a problem if you see what I mean.

If working just from the battery, the battery lasts less than an hour! I am not playing games, simply browsing the web here on wireless. I must declare that I over-rode the power-saving settings when only running from a battery - for example, I wanted full screen brightness etc. But surely that would not drain the batter to such an extent?

The battery is a six cell Lithium Ion battery and the screen is a HD Brightview with ATI Radeon HD 4200 Graphics.

As I say, all I am doing is browsing the web with wireless and full screen brightness at 100%; would that really diminish the battery life so quickly?

I am reluctant to take the laptop back if it is nothing to be worried about. The laptop works fine with the AC adapter plugged in and the battery is fully charged. There is also an HP battery test and that is reporting no problems. Could this a question of longevity, the more I use the laptop the better the battery's performance will get/?

Thanks for all your help as always.

If you have a new battery (A new laptop) it comes in a discharged condition and must be charged before use. Upon initial use (or after prolonged storage period) the battery may require two to three full charge/discharge cycles before achieving maximum capacity.

Quoted from
Laptop Battery maintenance - Laptop Tips | infodotnet

This is more common than you may think.. try draining your battery then recharge it back to 100% and see if you retain your charge ...

It really depends on what other hardware is in there. If your fan is always running and/or your screen is
always at 100% brightness, then yes, it can be that dramatic. Try dimming your screen and always remember to
unplug your laptop every once in a while because eventually your battery won't hold a charge.

Thanks so much for your immediate replies. Let me just answer:

This is more common than you may think.. try draining your battery then recharge it back to 100% and see if you retain your charge ...

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I have done this, yes, this was the second time I decided to test with laptop running purely from the battery and it still is lasting only about an hour. I must admit, when I recharged the battery for the second time, I was still using the laptop at the same time if u see what I mean.

It really depends on what other hardware is in there. If your fan is always running and/or your screen is
always at 100% brightness, then yes, it can be that dramatic.

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Thanks also, I'm inclined to agree with you. Yes, I must admit, the screen is running at full 100% brightness, wireless is always on, and I think the fan is running yes; it's very quiet but when I put my hand to it I can feel a little bit of air/heat so I assume it is running.

Thanks again for all your help and would still be open to other suggestions. I have repped u all.

The other thing I have just noticed is this: if I diminish the screen brightness, I hear a slight buzz coming from the machine. This immediately disappears when I increase to maximum brightness Any ideas? Thanks

There has been issues with 7 and battery life, but as mine is always plugged in it's not an issue for me...

Microsoft probes Windows 7 battery problems

Some screens create a buzz but that's a little weird. Is it barely audible or very noticeable?

FZ21Z said:

There has been issues with 7 and battery life, but as mine is always plugged in it's not an issue for me...

Microsoft probes Windows 7 battery problems

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Thanks FZ, yes mine is plugged in permanently also, I just wanted to ensure good battery life performance; I will have a read and repped also.

Product FRED said:

Some screens create a buzz but that's a little weird. Is it barely audible or very noticeable?

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It's barely audible, yes, disappears and then returns etc. But when brightness is at 100% it's not a problem at all. thanks again for your help

manhunter2826 said:

Thanks FZ, yes mine is plugged in permanently also, I just wanted to ensure good battery life performance; I will have a read and repped also.

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Thanks. It's not something I've kept up to date with so not sure how MS is/has delt with the issue.

Take it off the charger every once in a while. After a while (many weeks or months), the battery won't hold a charge. I'm curious, what laptop do you own?

Product FRED said:

Take it off the charger every once in a while. After a while (many weeks or months), the battery won't hold a charge. I'm curious, what laptop do you own?

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Thanks Fred, It's an HP Compaq CQ61 - take a look at my first post; I have added more detail about the spec there. Fred, I will do as u suggest and let the battery die down eventually (is that what u mean?).

Everything else I am happy with about the laptop and there is no buzz at all when the screen is set to maximum brightness. That's why I'm reluctant to take it back if it isn't actually a problem if u see what i mean. Thanks again for all your help.

Well, not necessarily die down. Just use it off the charger every once in a while and plug it in when the battery's low. Also, you should turn off wireless when you're not using it and dim the screen. Turning off Aero saves a lot of battery too. There's a utility on lifehacker.com
that automatically disables and reenables it if you unplug or plug in your laptop.

I know it's a bit too late, but next time stay away from HP. I bought 2 laptops, I forgot which model, dv-something. There's an issue where the GPU essentially melts and the computer is useless. HP kept sending it back saying there was no problem, until the warranty ran out. This is still an ongoing issue with newer models and I'd highly recommend a Dell for your next laptop purchase.

Product FRED said:

Well, not necessarily die down. Just use it off the charger every once in a while and plug it in when the battery's low. Also, you should turn off wireless when you're not using it and dim the screen. Turning off Aero saves a lot of battery too. There's a utility on lifehacker.com
that automatically disables and reenables it if you unplug or plug in your laptop.

I know it's a bit too late, but next time stay away from HP. I bought 2 laptops, I forgot which model, dv-something. There's an issue where the GPU essentially melts and the computer is useless. HP kept sending it back saying there was no problem, until the warranty ran out. This is still an ongoing issue with newer models and I'd highly recommend a Dell for your next laptop purchase.

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First of all, thanks so much for all your help with the battery matter; yes, I am using wireless constantly and am using Aero also. I will do as you suggested regarding taking the laptop off the ac adapter and then plugging back in when battery is low. So, correct me if I am wrong, but u are essentially suggesting I use the laptop with the battery only and then reconnect to the mains when it is low?

Oh dear looks like I made an awful choice then. This is actually branded as Compaq but the bespoke software is indeed HP-Compaq as u correctly infer. Otherwise, I am actually happy with it, nice screen and lovely keyboard action. But probably made the wrong choice given your experiences. Oh well....thanks so much again for all your advice.

You can use it plugged in, just every once in a while, use it on battery power. And as long as your laptop works and you're happy, that's good. Just trust me when i say go Dell next time or if this one craps out. You won't regret it.

Product FRED said:

You can use it plugged in, just every once in a while, use it on battery power. And as long as your laptop works and you're happy, that's good. Just trust me when i say go Dell next time or if this one craps out. You won't regret it.

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Thanks again Fred for the clarification . Much appreciated.

Just found this also in case it helps anyone else - which it probably won't! I'm still not sure if the buzzing is anything to worry about - it is very faint and completely disappears when screen brightness is maximum.

Compaq Presario CQ61 Notebook replacement screen problem
^^

Usually the high pitches buzzing sound that changes when you adjust the brightness and screen flickering is simply caused by the inverter

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manhunter, can i point you to this thread and follow the advice of Barman58 http://www.sevenforums.com/chillout-room/69345-stupid-stupid-laptop-battery.html some very good info there

pebbly said:

manhunter, can i point you to this thread and follow the advice of Barman58 http://www.sevenforums.com/chillout-room/69345-stupid-stupid-laptop-battery.html some very good info there

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I'm gonna rep you for that. See, that's what I was talking about. Keeping it plugged in 24/7 will destroy your battery in a matter of months. Even if you find no need to unplug it, do it anyways and then plug it back in later on (don't let it die though). It's just maintenance.

Product FRED ,its Barman58 who should be repped not I