How to check the battery on a laptop for performance: ways to check the status

Despite the fact that batteries are an essential component of mobile devices, they will expire over time, which requires replacement. However, you can extend your life by taking care and maintenance measures that you must follow, especially if the operating temperature is exceeded, which has a huge impact on the battery life and calibration of the laptop. In order to maximize the use of all battery resources, you need to periodically conduct testing. Before you check the battery on a laptop, you need to know the basic operations and software utilities.

Battery wear

Notebook batteries gradually lose capacity, slowly reducing battery life. The device registers wear, which is expressed as a percentage of the original capacity. On laptops, it is usually measured in milliwatts per hour, mWh. The battery is shipped from the factory with a rated maximum load. For example, 30,000 MWh. Suppose these 30,000 MWh are enough for the laptop to work for three hours. Over time, the battery loses its capacity, so at some point its maximum power will be 15,000 mWh, then it will have 50% wear and can continue to charge the laptop for an hour and a half.

This calculation is quite approximate, because the operating time will also depend on factors such as the energy cost of the task, which will require more or less energy. For example, a 3D game consumes much more battery power than writing a text document. These features must be considered before checking the battery on a laptop.

Thus, wear is an indication of the maximum capacity lost by the battery. This is a percentage that starts at 0% for perfect condition and increases to 100% when the battery can no longer perform its function.

Life time

It is not determined by years or months, but is established on the basis of recharge cycles, given that each cycle is equivalent to the charge that the user carries out at a rate of 20%. Thus, the default battery has a maximum number of recharge cycles. This number shows how theoretically the user can charge the device. Previously, this indicator was affected by the period of inactivity of the battery, but today this problem is not relevant, because there is no longer any memory effect, and the problem is a thing of the past.

Non-original chargers are still a threat to batteries and shorten battery life. The original device contains all the technologies that, according to the manufacturer, are necessary for the proper operation of the equipment. These circumstances must be considered before checking the battery on a laptop.

High temperatures are also a threat to long battery life and significantly reduce battery life. It is necessary to maximally avoid heat in the PC, affecting the proper functioning of all elements, causing all kinds of failures, which can even lead to explosions. It is recommended that the temperature be kept below 28 degrees to avoid shortening the service life.

Windows Control

Batteries tend to wear out faster than other components of a laptop, usually a decrease in performance occurs in just two or three years of operation. A good host will periodically conduct testing to monitor the operation of the device. It is enough just to check the battery charge and general condition and thereby avoid unwanted surprises.

Checking battery performance in Windows:

1. Before checking the battery on a laptop, click on the Windows button to open the Start menu.
2. Find the search bar with the inscription “Search for programs and files” at the bottom of the Start menu.
3. Enter in the search box "Windows Mobility Center." When the results appear, click "Windows Mobility Center" in the "Programs" section at the top of the results. It has various indicators showing whether the laptop is mobile.
4. Find "Battery Status" showing how much% of battery power remains.
5. Measure the voltage after a 20-80% discharge to compare it with the value of the full charge. The indicator of the device will not be 0V, but will still show several volts. When the battery drops below the minimum voltage, the computer automatically turns off.

Instrumental methods

You can check the battery with a multimeter, but before that you need to fully charge the laptop battery.

Algorithm of actions:

1. Before checking the laptop battery with a multimeter, turn off the computer and remove the device.
2. Find the rated voltage printed on the battery. It will be a number. which will need to be compared with the readings of the multimeter. Many laptops have voltages: 9.6 V, 10.8 V, 11.1 V, 14.4 V or 14.8 V. Some have lower or higher gradations.
3. Find the connector where the battery interacts with the PC. When it is connected to the network, it will be closer to the center on the side of the device that is facing the computer. Its length is about an inch, it should resemble a series of five very narrow identical slots. The most external of these will be the positive and negative terminals of the battery.
4. Before checking the battery on the laptop for performance, turn on the multimeter and configure it to measure DC voltage on a scale of 20 volts. The settings are indicated by the letter V, direct current straight lines next to V, and wavy for alternating current.
5. Insert one end of the multimeter into the extreme slot on one end of the battery connector, and the other into the next extreme slot on it. It doesn’t matter if the plus and minus are mixed up - it will just change the sign of stress, not the actual number.
6. Compare readings on a multimeter. A fully charged, serviceable laptop battery will show close to the nameplate value.

Working Control Utilities

In order to check the battery status on a laptop, utilities are widely used, free of charge, with visual effects and informative, with the output of the results to a text file.

Popular utilities 2019:

1. Batterymon. More focused on monitoring, it monitors the laptop’s battery capacity and download speed and displays real-time results.
2. BatteryCare. Another free, informative and specialized tool for periodic calibration.
3. Powercfg for the Windows console provides complete information without the need to install additional applications. To access the command line, write cmd (Windows hotkey + R) and enter powercfg / batteryreport to create a report in the html version. Access to which can be obtained by the path C: \ Users \ username \ battery-report.html. The command can be executed with the - energy modifier to evaluate the effectiveness and view configurations.

Battery check upon purchase

When they purchase a laptop, the seller claims that everything functions well, and that the battery works for hours. However, sometimes this is just a marketing ploy, and in fact, everything is not so wonderful, and the service life is drastically reduced. You must be able to check the deterioration of the battery.

The BatteryBar program is a small freeware with a professional version that shows the percentage of loading and the remaining minutes on the taskbar. In order to test the battery on a laptop program, you will need to choose between a floating version or an integrated taskbar. In addition, you can install skins and additional languages. After unpacking, click on the new panel to display a window with information. They check the wear, the higher the indicator, the worse.

This percentage shows the current capacity of the battery relative to the factory standard when it was new. If the value is too high, this means that the battery will have little autonomy, and you should consider replacing it.

Check batteryreport battery

For this verification method, you will need to open the terminal console in Windows 10, launch it through the right administrator button and select from the list. Next, write the following line on the screen: powercfg / batteryreport.

Press the Enter button and get the HTML file. If you double-click on it, it will open in your browser by default. The document contains information on the three most important parameters that will tell the user about the "health" of the battery:

1. The capacity for which the device is designed in MWh, the maximum figure at the time of testing. The closer the actual load is to the limit value, the better is its condition.
2. History of battery charging. From this information, one can judge how often the equipment was recharged, see the charge that it accumulated in each of them. If regression is noticed, then this is bad, since the ditched battery requires frequent charging.
3. Average battery life based on all load cycles since the installation of the operating system.

BatteryCare for measuring life

There are computers such as Hewlett Packard, Sony, Acer, and others that already have this option for diagnosing battery life. On the other hand, when the PC does not have this tool, you can use various free programs or test versions to check the battery status.

Such software can check the assigned, total and current capacity of the laptop battery and the level of battery wear caused by the loads and loads of the computer.

Experts recommend BatteryCare, which can be used to measure PC battery life. In order to check battery wear on a laptop, download the program from the official website.

Specifications:

1. Requirements: Windows 8/7 / Vista / XP.
2. Price: free.
3. Designed to optimize laptop battery usage and performance.
4. Monitors discharge cycles and helps increase its service life.
5. Provides complete battery information.
6. Measures the temperature of the processor and hard drive.
7. Performs an automatic change of energy plans.
8. Manages Windows Aero and other services.
9. Performs an automatic software update.
10. Data is stored in a file, so you can visualize and analyze it.
11. It is fully compatible with multi-core and multi-threaded processors.

Battery Optimizer for Duty Cycle

This is an advanced portable optimization utility that uses advanced diagnostics and tests to extend the life of the device. Monitors the laptop battery and provides all the data about it.

The program shows the evolution during loading and unloading cycles using some important battery parameters, such as the level of wear and the number of discharge coils. It continuously reads data, making a forecast for the remaining time, and also has two alarms for capacity in a low and critical state. In order to check the deterioration of the laptop battery, download it from the official page for downloading the program: Battery Optimizer.

Another Aida 64 Extreme Edition 2.50.2000 utility with testing and touch controls for Windows 8/7 / Server 2008 / Vista / 2003 / XP / 2000 / Me / 98 / Windows NT. It has unique capabilities for evaluating processor, memory, and disk performance. The program is paid, but has a 30-day trial version, which is enough to check the laptop’s battery.

Testing and Operational Tips

When buying a laptop, the seller will warn the buyer that the first charge should be performed after the battery is completely unloaded. And this will be the first mistake, because the battery comes with a charge of about 40%, which is ideal for its condition, does not suffer for long periods of inactivity. That’s why you don’t need to be afraid to start working and boot the device at the right time, without waiting for a full load.

It must be remembered that in addition to cases of battery calibration, it is not recommended to use battery indicators below 20. Optimum data is from 20% to 80%. It is required to completely discharge the battery once or twice a year. This will allow you to calibrate the charge counter to get accurate information.

Always connected - this is one of the errors that other users comment on. The negative of this process is not a single opinion for all manufacturers, since when the battery is charged, the charging process stops and does not resume until it falls below the minimum level.

They start the computer from the battery at least once a week, discharging up to 20–80% of the total capacity. These “workouts” help the chemical composition of the battery stay longer efficient, which means a longer battery life.