Solved Battery calibration?

[Alexey2912]

Just got a new 7200 mAh 11.1V 9 cell battery for it. Company recommends to fully charge and discharge at least 2-4 times to calibrate it.

How do I do that.........since the lap shuts down at 7% and doesn't allow to full discharge till dead??

Thanks.

 

[marsmimar]

Dell published an article on how to calibrate Li-ion and Ni-MH/NiCad laptop batteries. The article doesn't say anything about charging/discharging 2-4 times. I'd contact Dell again and ask for clarification.

On-the-Go articles | Dell

Maybe Dell has changed its mind on the proper procedure but I have a Dell Inspiron 1200 laptop from around 2006. It still has the original battery and still gives about 2 hours battery life. That may not sound like a lot of time but when brand new it only gave 2.5 hours. From the very beginning all I did was let the battery run down to the pre-determined percentage (all my laptops shut down at 5%) and then let it fully charge back up to 100%. This is he same procedure I've used on all my laptops (Dell, Sony, Acer, Lenovo, and a couple other machines from work.)

Here's another article that might be of interest.

How to Calibrate Your Laptop

 

[Alexey2912]

Thanks for your reply.

So your practical experience says that no logic to fully charge and discharge, to calibrate a new battery.

My Dell XPS 1710 purchased back in 06, being ultra careful with it since burnt its vid card twice. Nvidias run hot.

Have a cooler tray along with Dell fans app utility, don't wanna burn this 7950 512 MB GTX, the one I got with it was 7600 256 MB.

Just got a new battery, since Dell no longer manufactures it got from a 3rd party suggested by Dell.

That is one reason am asking......spend more time taking care than using it.

My friends have Inspirons they are are far better than XPS series......still running great like yours.

Should I install all Dell drivers or W7 ones........like for video card, Intel Pro wireless etc.

Is Quick set of any use?

Any tips, suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks again

 

[marsmimar]

My personal laptop use is about 98% of the time on AC power and 2% on battery only. About once a month I unplug the AC and use the battery until it gets down to about 7%. Then I plug the AC power in and keep using the laptop normally until it reaches 100% charge. Haven't experienced any negative battery performance following this procedure and on my newer laptops with Li-ion batteries that are supposed to give 6+ hours use, I'm easily achieving that. Even doing some power intensive things like playing DVDs, or doing a full system image, or running diagnostics tests, etc. But I can't guarantee that you'll or anyone else will have similar results. Just like two people buy the exact same make, model, and year of car. One car works fine, the other is in the shop every other week.

If Quickset was pre-installed on your computer, play around with it and see if it offers more tweaks than the Windows 7 power plans (Start > Control Panel > Power Options.) But if it wasn't pre-installed I'd just use the native Windows 7 power options.

As far as drivers are concerned, I will always use the computer manufacturer's drivers over those recommended by Windows 7. A few years ago Windows 7 offered an updated video driver for my Sony Vaio. I installed it and immediately started having issues. Rolled back the driver and issues disappeared. Contacted Sony and they said Microsoft offers generic drivers that usually work. But those generic drivers can be modified by individual computer manufacturers for their specific line of computers. Failure to use manufacturer specific drivers can cause all kinds of headaches. And Sony also told me that many times it takes them several months to modify a new driver.

Another rule of thumb I follow is "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Just because a new driver becomes available doesn't mean you absolutely have to install it if you're not experiencing problems. (I don't change the tires on my truck just because Michelin came out with a new tread design. )

One final suggestion and that is to make regular system images. Saves countless hours of work. An image is like a snapshot of the hard drive. It includes the operating system, all drivers, all installed software, personal files, photos, music, etc. Let's say your machine becomes infected with malware. You could wipe the hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch. That could take days to get your machine back to where it was. Or, you could reinstall a clean system image (malware free) and be up and running in usually less than an hour. Your machine will be exactly as it was when the image was made.

 

[Alexey2912]

Thanks again for a very detailed and in depth reply, which I appreciate.

 

[marsmimar]

You're most welcome.

 

[Alexey2912]

I appreciate it big time, taking out your precious time to reply.