OT: What's up w/ my laptop's battery ?

Mar 14, 2014, 11:24 AM

Miami, FL (or the nearest big-booty club)

For any techies out there.

I have a 17-inch Dell laptop that I bought new about 3 years ago.

For some reason; I seem to be getting just about an 1 hour max out of the battery. I don't recall; but when I bought the thing I thought it advertised more battery life than that.

Is that a normal thing for laptop batteries (i.e. shorter life as they get older even if they are fully recharged)? Anything that can be done other than buying a new battery? Will a new batter generally have longer life or could the problem be somewhere else w/ my laptop?

comments (4)

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Detroit24811 years ago

Time to get a new battery! I have an HP that used to last about 4 hours if I was watching a movie. Now it barely holds a full charge for an hour.

It is the same with all other laptops I have had, eventually the battery's capability to hold a charge is diminished.

Other option is to keep it plugged in at all times.

londonguy11 years ago

If you have been using it without any ventilation etc., i.e. on a flat surface most of the time this will affect the lifetime of your battery. You do well to get an hour out of it. Personally I would never get a laptop with a screen bigger than 15" because the power for the screen is so demanding.

rl2711 years ago

That's definitely true about the screens. I had a old Lenovo laptap with a 14 1/2 inch screen at work that would barely keep a 1 1/2 hour charge on battery at around 40% brightness. One day I forgot to plug it in and had it hooked up to an external monitor, I got the 10% power warning after about 4 1/2 hours, which means the screen was eating up over 2/3 of the battery capacity.

Also depending on how old the laptop is, keeping it plugged in all the time also lowers the life expectancy. Newer laptops are designed to let the battery drain when plugged in.

mjx0111 years ago

don't buy a knock of battery on ebay... I tried that as a cheep fix for an old laptop battery that couldn't keep a charge... and of course the p.o.s. replacement was just as bad.