As with everything, Laptop batteries tends to wear out with time, consistent uses and repeated charging. It is an issue many of us faced after a few years with our Laptops. While some batteries can be replaced at home rather easily, others require an expert to judge the exact battery suited for your Laptop.
Here, we’ll discuss about the indications of your Laptop Battery being worn-out:
Not all Laptop batteries are created equal
The number of cells, the cell design, the lithium-ion powder, even the manufacturing process all affect the performance of the battery. Cheap/Imitation batteries wear out six times faster than high quality laptop batteries.
How can you tell if your laptop battery is truly the issue?
If your laptop is giving you a warning message indicating you need to replace your battery, you can skip the troubleshooting and order a battery.
If your laptop doesn’t turn on while it is plugged into a power socket, you likely have a charger or hardware problem and not a battery problem.
If your laptop works without the battery while it is plugged in, you likely have a battery problem.
3 Signs of a worn-out laptop battery include:
1. Overheating when Charging, especially along the bottom of the case where the Battery is located
The battery may overheat due to a couple of reasons:
- the fans and grates are covered in dust and not able to properly circulate air
- the battery is defective
- the battery should be removed while plugged into the AC power adapter when it’s not charging.
Regardless of the reason, if you feel your battery becoming very warm, or overheating, the battery should be removed from the laptop and allowed to cool to room temperature before attempting to use again.
2. Losing Charge quickly
Usually, one of the most common signs of a Laptop losing charge quickly is an old or discharged battery. If your laptop’s battery is old, then chances are that it can get discharged easily and it is time to get it replaced. Aside from that, the following are some other reasons that contributes to your laptop battery problems:
- There could be too many processes running in the background.
- A heavy application (like gaming or any other desktop app) can also heavily drain the battery.
- A change in the system settings, causing the fast draining of the battery
- Your system can be running on high brightness or other advanced options.
- Too many online and network connections may possibly cause this problem.
- The firmware installed can be corrupted, causing a power failure.
- Other reasons can be a faulty driver, too many peripheral devices, and so on.
3. Lengthy Charge Duration
The possible reasons for when it takes hours for your laptop to be charged could be:
- The battery is old or damaged
- The charger isn’t compatible with your PC.
- The charger isn’t powerful enough to charge your PC.
- The charger isn’t connected to the charging port on your PC.
How to Find out the Underlying Problem
One way to do so is to inspect the battery is by simply looking at it. Remove the battery from your laptop, but be careful if you’ve just used your laptop because it may be hot. Does the battery appear cracked or swollen? If you see any leaking, a gummy residue, or broken plastic along the surface area, stop using it right away and order a replacement.
Another option is the battery health check, which can tell you more about the condition of a battery that appears to be in good working order but fails to hold a charge. To test your laptop battery, you’ll need to run a battery report. This is easy to do with Windows 10.
How to run a battery report in Windows 10
Follow these easy steps to get your Battery report:
- Press the Windows key + X key at the same time.
- Select Windows Powershell (Admin) when it pops up
- Click yes when prompted to give permission to make changes to your device.
- You will see a small black pop-up window, type in the following command:
powercfg /batteryreport /output “C:battery-report.html”
on the first available line and click the Enter key.
- Some text will display and then you’ll see a path to where you can find the report.
- Close the window.
- Check for the report’s location by using File Explorer. It might be on the Desktop or in your Documents folder.
- The report is a browser file, such as Chrome or Internet Explorer. Click the file to open in a browser window.
Source: hp.com
And you will be directed to a browser where you will find your Battery Report for your Laptop.
When is a Good Time to Change your Battery?
As Batteries could be a possible hazard if left unattended due to overheating, it is safer to avoid such an event from happening.
It will be noted that laptop battery fires have happened on occasions in the past when Dell found it necessary to recall certain of its batteries because of the risk of explosion, fire and injury. Several other producers of laptops and the associated batteries – Sony, Toshiba, Apple, HP and Fujitsu – have all encountered similar problems.
Clearly the outcome of such a battery fire could possibly turn severe, or even fatal. In slightly different circumstances, these incidents could easily have resulted in a serious fire.
The following preventive actions have been suggested by the company:
Never leave charging laptops unattended – either at home or at work;
If you are not sure of your own laptop (battery) check the manufacturer’s website or contact the store where it was bought for information.
Source: imca-int.com
How to Change to a New Battery
If your Laptop has an external battery, replacing it is very simple task. All you need to do is look up the serial number of your battery and order a replacement battery. Though you can find third-party battery replacements easily in Singapore, I recommend that you use trusted manufacturer batteries to not put your computer at risk, as imitation batteries may compromise your Laptop’s system.
However, if your Laptop has an internal battery, it tends to complicate the change as it is extremely delicate and should not be done by those who are not trained to do so since it could easily damage the inner workings of your Laptop.
If you need someone to service your Laptop for such a task, you may wish to contact Pronto Arigato now or leave an inquiry about what you need help with. For more information and service-related blogs, make sure to stay tuned to our website.
