Reprogramming a laptop battery?

I'm typing this and my laptop is about 20 minutes past the point where it said there was no battery remaining. Literally, it said "0" percent remaining, about 20 minutes ago. I'm still using the laptop, after disabling the auto-sleep features. Any moment now the laptop is going to go "poof" because it's really going to be actually out of power.

But my point is...

The computer clearly has no idea where "E" is on this thing's fuel gauge. I thought that running it down to "poof" would reprogram it so that it now knows where "E" really is on the battery's fuel gauge. But I did that once before and it still doesn't know where "E" really is.

How do I truly reprogram this thing so that it really knows when the right time is to warn me the battery is low?

This sounds like a Windows problem.

If it were a Mac it would say something like 15%, change to 14% and then suddenly shut itself off well before you expected it to.

You usually have to do a full charge/discharge cycle a few times for it to work out the capacity. If that doesn't work then there isn't much you can do about it.

It's not a Windows problem I don't think. Windows is just going on what the electronics are telling it is the remaining charge in the battery.

I can tell Windows to do whatever I want it to do, and it does it. If I want it to wait until it's down to 2 percent and then go into sleep mode, great, it does that. The problem is that the battery isn't being honest with regard to what "2 percent" really is.



I'm having the opposite problem. If I turn off the feature that automatically sleeps it when the battery gets low, then I can watch the gauge and it shows it draining all the way down to zero. Then the thing still lasts for another half an hour before actually going poof.

Am I right in assuming that the "gauge" in question is in the electronics attached to the battery?

Aha, so just once isn't enough? Gotcha.

I was just reading this (below) earlier today:
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/free-battery-meter.htm

Check your BIOS to see if it has a battery calibration function.

Some HP machines have a battery calibration. I can't remember what you have to press to access it, but I think it was something with F6 during POST. Could be Shift-F6. I don't know if other manufacturers include the same and I don't know what the magic key combination would be, but it might not neccessary be inside the BIOS screen.

Stig

On older Compaq/HP machines the battery interfacing/monitoring was carried out by the i8042 keyboard controller. This interfaced with the embedded microcontroller in the battery pack. Not sure if it's still done this way on current laptops.

Check for manufacturer's firmware updates relating to the keyboard controller, they may also re-flash the battery microcontroller.

Perhaps you are using a clone battery?

I had been using a Lenovo T60, and it had a battery "reconditioning" application. I used it once, and it essentially automated this process for you, if you didn't mind being without the laptop for a day or two

Great ideas. How'd you know I had an HP?

I didn't see anything in the BIOS setup screens, and F6 ran a Memory/Disk self-test. Oh, didn't do SHIFT-F6 though. Will try.



Good idea. No new firmware updates since the last time I flashed to the latest BIOS. Nothing keyboard- or battery-related in their downloads.



Nope, original battery that came with the laptop about a year and a half ago.

Shouldn't there still be some life in the battery if it is going into sleep mode? If it hits 0% and then sleeps because it has run out of power then it isn't going to last very long in that mode...

No, that's not what I'm saying. Of course there's some life left in the battery after it goes into sleep mode. What I'm saying is...

1. If I just let the thing drain down, when the OS goes automatically into sleep mode when the battery gets low like it's supposed to...

2. It's lying. The battery wasn't really that low! Despite the fuel gauge saying nearly E, it wasn't actually anywhere near empty! There was a ton of charge left!

3. Because of 2., above, I get crappy amounts of normal runtime before the OS starts automatically dropping me into sleep mode. I can't get any frakkin work done, the thing doesn't even last through a company meeting.

4. To prove 2., above, and only for the sake of proving it, I turn off the sleep features and let the battery drain.

5. After the battery fuel gauge drains down to ZERO, then with the laptop running on full power with no powersaving features enabled, I get an ADDITIONAL 24 MINUTES OF RUN TIME after the battery *THOUGHT* it was fully drained. This proves 2., above, and means that the situation described in 3., above, is a malfunctioning state.

6. So I want to re-program the battery so it knows where "E" is on the gauge, and thus I get correct amounts of runtime instead of the amounts described in 3., above.

But it's all moot anyway. See my next post.

Oh hai, mister factory-installed HP battery check utility:

On reading the subject line, my first thought was.

"Which language would be best for that?"

In other words, PSYCH!

Lithium batteries just don't a very long lifespan. I have two for my PowerBook G4 and I don't think either of them can run my machine for longer than an hour.

IMO, better battery technology is the most lacking component of current notebook generation.

Yeah, I laughed at that wording, too.

My Compaq, years ago, had a battery monitor circuit built into the battery pack. They had a utility to reset it that you had to download, it didn't come with the 'puter.

Since Compaq is now HP, you may have the same deal.

However, the reset program still didn't help anything... it just changed the nature of the problem...