"Consider Replacing Your Battery"

[antt]

i doubt windows 7 is the cause.... i think people started checking..... people use their laptops as regular computers, and leave them plugged in the entire time they are in use. that is HORRIBLE for the battery! i think the incorrect usage type is more to blame. i doubt after a full charge most people take out the battery (if they are going to leave it plugged in) like they are supposed to. i would love to hear winodws come out and "comment on this" with something along the lines of, "dont be stupid" "read your manual" "its a rechargeable battery, learn to use it"

but we shall see... i guess its possible that it COULD be a windows issue... but i personally do not believe it/

I agree with having it plugged in all the time wish i could get my Mom to understand it still even after Gateway told her it would shorten the battery life still plugged in. Fabe

There is no real problem with leaving the battery plugged in if the laptop is designed to disperse heat well. Many of the newer laptops are designed to keep the battery at/near room temperature, which is fine for them.
Older laptops were less well-designed, and so caused the batteries to heat up, which is the killer.

 

[TheTeZ]

I tried that workaround and it didn't work for me. And I doubt it worked for him either (he doesn't say what happened after it finished charging or what the capacity percentage change (if any) was. If the EEPROM in the battery has been written with bad data by Win 7, (the cause of the problem) there doesn't seem to be any remedy. The "workaround" seem only to have stopped the error msg (while charging). If it were as easy as the "workaround" says, I doubt this issue would still be in the news.

Another poster in another thread installed Linux after Windows 7 damaged his battery by reducing the capacity of a new battery to only 62% in just a few days usage. In Linux, he drained the battery totally and then re-charged it while the laptop was off for several hours. In his case, he gained back about 20% more capacity (to 81%). So there may be something to this method. This is the real issue here: Windows 7 writing inaccurate data to the battery's EEPROM saying it's capacity is reduced when, if fact, it is not. But, because the battery reports reduced capacity, Windows will shut down the machine prematurely and there appears to be no fix as of yet. An update to Windows ACPI and battery management driver is probably the fix that is needed.

I hope Microsoft finds a solution soon so I can go back to Windows 7.

so then just download some linux iso, and pop in the live CD every now and then, let it charge, then be on your way ;=]

 

[aem]

Guys for my lappy, it was the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery PnP device, as soon as i disabled this is Device Manager, the icons message just went away. My XP dualboot is fine so i disabled it on my W7.

 

[raydabruce]

Guys for my lappy, it was the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery PnP device, as soon as i disabled this is Device Manager, the icons message just went away. My XP dualboot is fine so i disabled it on my W7.

That's fine for getting rid of the message but it won't correct the wrong values for battery capacity that Windows 7 has written to your battery's EEPROM chip.

 

[aem]

Guys for my lappy, it was the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery PnP device, as soon as i disabled this is Device Manager, the icons message just went away. My XP dualboot is fine so i disabled it on my W7.

That's fine for getting rid of the message but it won't correct the wrong values for battery capacity that Windows 7 has written to your battery's EEPROM chip.

Can you explain more on this value and where i can check it?

 

[snlu178]

How I fixed my "consider replacing your battery".

1) Adjust all setting in your power scheme to minimize actions when the battery is low. (turn off all sleep or hibernate commands and reduce all warnings to 0 or 1 minute).
2) Run the following command:
To change the 'Battery->Critical battery action->'On battery' setting to "Do nothing" using powercfg.exe

1. activate the power scheme you want to modify.
2. open an elevated command console (windows key, type 'cmd' in start menu, press "ctrl+shift+enter", click 'continue')
3. execute "powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0"
4. your current power scheme will show "Battery->Critical battery action->On battery: Do nothing" despite the option being unavailable in the drop box.

3) Run your laptop until it dies...your pc will fully crash. Then fully recharge and run until it dies again.

This will recalibrate your battery. Because Windows 7 automatically shuts down your PC when it thinks the battery is low, it never recalibrates. You have to stop if from sleeping or hibernating all together to get the battery to recalibrate. I went from 66% battery wear to 0.0% overnight.

 

[Pusspa]

How I fixed my "consider replacing your battery".

1) Adjust all setting in your power scheme to minimize actions when the battery is low. (turn off all sleep or hibernate commands and reduce all warnings to 0 or 1 minute).
2) Run the following command:

To change the 'Battery->Critical battery action->'On battery' setting to "Do nothing" using powercfg.exe

1. activate the power scheme you want to modify.
2. open an elevated command console (windows key, type 'cmd' in start menu, press "ctrl+shift+enter", click 'continue')
3. execute "powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0"
4. your current power scheme will show "Battery->Critical battery action->On battery: Do nothing" despite the option being unavailable in the drop box.

3) Run your laptop until it dies...your pc will fully crash. Then fully recharge and run until it dies again.

This will recalibrate your battery. Because Windows 7 automatically shuts down your PC when it thinks the battery is low, it never recalibrates. You have to stop if from sleeping or hibernating all together to get the battery to recalibrate. I went from 66% battery wear to 0.0% overnight.

how do i remove this changed setting when i have finished?

 

[raydabruce]

Guys for my lappy, it was the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant Control Method Battery PnP device, as soon as i disabled this is Device Manager, the icons message just went away. My XP dualboot is fine so i disabled it on my W7.

That's fine for getting rid of the message but it won't correct the wrong values for battery capacity that Windows 7 has written to your battery's EEPROM chip.

Can you explain more on this value and where i can check it?

I don't know of any way to check it other than the usual way within Windows. It will report your charge capacity (original and current) with "powercfg.exe -energy -output [filename]." If your charge capacity is dropping fast, then you have a problem. Batteries should last anywhere from 1 to 5 years, depending on usage patterns, in my experience.

 

[snlu178]

Pusspa

Go back into the power scheme and change the "critical battery" setting. That should correct it. I have left it alone with the "PC dying" feature for now to stop Win 7 from once again killing the battery.

FYI if you set setting back to normal Win 7 will just redo the "consider replacing your battery". If you leave the setting alone as I detailed, you get hours of battery life back...just dont let it put your PC to sleep when it thinks you are out of juice.

 

[aem]

That's fine for getting rid of the message but it won't correct the wrong values for battery capacity that Windows 7 has written to your battery's EEPROM chip.

Can you explain more on this value and where i can check it?

I don't know of any way to check it other than the usual way within Windows. It will report your charge capacity (original and current) with "powercfg.exe -energy -output [filename]." If your charge capacity is dropping fast, then you have a problem. Batteries should last anywhere from 1 to 5 years, depending on usage patterns, in my experience.

The problem is not dropping fast, not that i time my battery life, it's the message of replacing battery.

My report came back with:

Both with power mains and battery only.
Battery:Analysis Success
Analysis was successful. No energy efficiency problems were found. No information was returned.

 

[NoN]

How I fixed my "consider replacing your battery".

1) Adjust all setting in your power scheme to minimize actions when the battery is low. (turn off all sleep or hibernate commands and reduce all warnings to 0 or 1 minute).
2) Run the following command:


To change the 'Battery->Critical battery action->'On battery' setting to "Do nothing" using powercfg.exe

1. activate the power scheme you want to modify.
2. open an elevated command console (windows key, type 'cmd' in start menu, press "ctrl+shift+enter", click 'continue')
3. execute "powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0"
4. your current power scheme will show "Battery->Critical battery action->On battery: Do nothing" despite the option being unavailable in the drop box.

3) Run your laptop until it dies...your pc will fully crash. Then fully recharge and run until it dies again.

This will recalibrate your battery. Because Windows 7 automatically shuts down your PC when it thinks the battery is low, it never recalibrates. You have to stop if from sleeping or hibernating all together to get the battery to recalibrate. I went from 66% battery wear to 0.0% overnight.

how do i remove this changed setting when i have finished?

In your Power Scheme =>Modify scheme=> Avanced Parameters, you can reset all to default when finished.

Also there's a link in blue color in power scheme=>Modify Scheme to reset all back to normal (recommended).

 

[WindowsStar]

Any chance this can help?

BatteryCare

 

[Zepher]

Is there any connection to a certain battery manufacturer?
I've intalled Win 7 Home Premium, Professional, and Ultimate on 6 Notebooks and 3 Netbooks and they all seem to be running fine and not reporting any battery errors.
The Laptops are 2x Sony, Lenovo, Toshiba, and 2x HP.
Netbooks are 2x Dell Mini 9, and an Acer Aspire One.

 

[antt]

There is an interesting discussion about this on slashdot- one of the points raised was that people often blame the messenger for killing batteries. here's an excerpt:

I have a lot of sympathy for the Windows team on this one - I don't think they're blame-shifting here.

It's been my experience that the software that reports a problem will get blamed for causing the problem. Maybe "shoot the messenger" is just human nature, but I've often been amazed at how users will blame software that repors a hardware problem that the software couldn't not possibly have caused. "Disk I/O error detected" results in calls of "why are you causing my disks to fail" - after all it must be you, since the other software isn't complaining (failing, mind you, but not complaining).

And now apparantly "battery failure detected" results in calls of "why are you causing my battery to fail" - after all it must be you, since the prvious version didn't complain.

I believe this is probably the reason for the battery warnings - people not realising how bad their battery was getting, upgrading to windows 7 and being notified that the battery was not holding charge.

 

[DoubleGee]

Hey guys, My laptop was working fine, untill the same message popped out to me as well, here is a screenshot of my cmd after I have energy check.

and the energy-report as well here >

Any help will be appreciated!

P.S. I've been using Win Ultimate x64 since Nov. 2009

 

[Delphin]

I believe this is probably the reason for the battery warnings - people not realising how bad their battery was getting, upgrading to windows 7 and being notified that the battery was not holding charge.

I agree with your answer antt

 

[Barman58]

Whilst I concede that this may be a fault in the way that win7 is reporting the battery status and thus producing the perception that the battery has less available charge that is the actual case, I have issues with some of the other perceptions and reports with regards to this issue.

Win7 would have no need for, or the routines required to, write information back to the "EEPROM" in the battery.

Even if this information were corrupted this is an EEPROM, (Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), that is - basically a re-writeable storage medium, and as such should be erasable and thus not "broken" just by having incorrect information written to it.

In my opinion this seems to be a case of a possible issue being overblown due to misconceptions as to what is actually happening, fuelled by the Internet blog grapevine. There may well be an issue with the incorrect reading of the values concerned but talk of a "class action" is un-called for

 

[DoubleGee]

I would aslo like to mention, that this problem occured, after I have installed some updates yesterday

 

[KuleRucket]

This has just started happening on my girlfriends laptop. I have a feeling this is related to an update, otherwise what would everyone start flocking here right now?

Last week I was using the laptop for several hours on battery power. I'm attempting the battery drain fix as I speak and the % is falling fast. It will be out in less than an hour. The power report for it was that it hard 30% left.

If Windows can write to EEPROM, then so can something else to fix it, so hopefully it can be fixed if my recalibration doesn't work.

 

[Barman58]

Just thought I'd share this that appeared in my Inbox a short while ago ....

Engineering Windows 7 : Windows 7 Battery Notification Messages