The truth about notebook battery

It’s one of the most important and least understood parts of your notebook—and it provokes so many unanswered questions. Why do laptop batteries gradually lose their ability to hold a charge? Why does it takes longer for a charging notebook to go from 80 to 100 percent charge than it does to go from zero to 80 percent? What’s the difference between a three-cell and a six-cell battery? Rather than shrug our shoulders for another day, we demanded answers from two experts, Matt Kohut, worldwide competitive analyst at Lenovo; and John Wozniak, Ph.D. distinguished technologist at HP.

LAPTOP: At what point during Presario 2100 battery life cycle does a typical notebook battery last longest?

Kohut: The industry average is about 30 percent degradation per year. You’ll probably start to notice after about six months.

John Wozniak: Batteries tend to fade pretty quickly over the first 10 or 20 cycles, and then capacity levels off.

How long does a typical notebook battery last?

Kohut: Roughly, 350 charge cycles. A cycle is cumulative use that reaches 70 percent degradation, or seven times when 90 percent of the battery capacity was used.

What causes a battery to lose capacity over time?

Wozniak: Think of a Presario 2500 battery as having pores, where the electrons flow back and forth between the cathode and the anode. When those pores get clogged, you can’t move the electrons as efficiently anymore. Then the lithium gets bound up on one side or the other, and it no longer contributes to the movement of electrons. It gets backed up.

Do you need to build up a battery memory, or condition it, to get the best performance?

Kohut: This was true in the lithium-metal hydride days, however, with a standard lithium-ion battery, you just need to make sure you charge it fully. Most batteries ship from the manufacturers with an 80 percent charge.

Conditioning, meaning draining the battery to zero and then charging HP ZE4400 battery fully while Windows monitors it, resets the curve. It doesn’t prolong the battery’s life, but it improves accuracy [of the battery monitor]. Over time, the accuracy drifts in the Windows program that measures battery life. That is why it can say that you suddenly went from 80 to 20 percent in five minutes.

How much can you trust the charge status that Windows gives you?

Kohut: If the battery reports full, Windows says it is full. Windows periodically checks the battery, but it is more of a thumbs-up/thumbs-down than a real assessment. Windows is crude; trust it if it’s full, trust it if it’s empty. But know that it doesn’t have the communication to know that the Pavilion DV2000 battery degrades over time. We recommend the Lenovo Power Manager, because it has a lot more smarts. It knows the status of each individual cell, whether it’s balanced, imbalanced, charging, not charging, etc.

John Wozniak: If the BIOS is written correctly, Windows is really accurate; within 1 to 2 percent. The problem is how often it updates.

When charging a notebook, why does the last 5 to 10 Percent take longer than the first 85 to 90 percent?

Kohut: If the EVO N400C battery is low, we will charge it at a faster rate. But when the battery fills up, we back off, because it’s the last bit of charging that causes the issues to form. Other vendors that do rapid charge still back off around the last 10 percent. Dell, for example, does fast charge, pedal to the metal, from zero to 80 percent. Then backs off and coasts into the finish line. Lenovo starts fast, but backs off more and more through the entire charge. This allows for a more even rate of charge. It takes longer overall, but it helps the battery’s longevity.

Some notebooks won’t start charging unless the battery is below a certain level, SAY, 95 percent. Why is that?

Kohut: Charging it to 100 percent every time adds cycles that cause the inspiron 1525 battery to wear out faster. In the typical office situation, you’re plugged in 100 percent all day. Then you take it home, and plug it in again, after losing maybe only 2 percent. If you charge to 100 percent again, you start adding cycles that wear out the battery because you’re initiating a full charge cycle. The thought behind our process is that unless the battery gets below a certain percentage, don’t put it through the stress of charging.

How important is the number of cells in determining battery capacity?

Kohut: The three-, six, nine-celled battery is shorthand for explaining how much laptop battery life a machine has, but watt-hours hours determine capacity. The average consumer has no clue that a nine-cell battery has around 84-watt-hours of power, they just know it’s a nine-cell. One of Lenovo’s competitor’s has two six-cell batteries—a 53-watt-hour and a 47-watt-hour. The second doesn’t deliver the same capacity. To really understand how much power a battery will hold, you need to look at the watt-hours.

Some vendors are advertising two- or three-cell batteries that claim a longer life than six-cell models. Is that possible?

Kohut: There is a fine line. Ibook G3 Battery VGP-BPS2C capacity has gone up in the past few years by making the cells more energy-dense. There used to be 2 amp hour (Ah) cells, but now cells go up to 2.9 amps. If you can control the higher concentration of energy in the smaller space, it’s not a problem. But sometimes this results in violent reactions such as overheating and over-charging. [If a vendor claims its battery lasts a long time with fewer cells,] you want to ask how many watt-hours the pack holds, and about the kind of cells (2.6, 2.9 Ah, etc.).

Should consumers trust third-party batteries?

Kohut: We’ll warranty our own batteries, but if you put a third-party battery in, you void the warranty. That’s because there are good Powerbook G4 battery manufacturers and there are bad ones. Some of the good ones are Panasonic, Sanyo, and Sony. A less reputable company will buy whatever is cheapest, and just drop it in there. The reason a lot of the battery incidents occur in this industry is because of quality control.

We always say that you are taking [the life of your notebook] into your own hands when you buy a third-party battery pack. Yes, you are saving some money up-front but you don’t have the backing of the company behind it.

The article is from : www.laptopmag.com

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June 17, 2009, ASUS Computer held a New conference to launch the stylish thin and light U series notebook. ASUS with a leading global provider of innovative industrial design, as users experience feelings of pleasure, as well as their own work style to create conditions for recreation. At the meeting, from 12.1 to 15.6 inches wide areas of the U-size models, from portable to cover the full range of audio-visual performance applications, which can be called a pragmatic fashion and with perfect integration for the UX30, in light of the ultimate all-around body with both applications, become the Macbook Air ultra-thin after a classic.

Mainstream 14-inch U80, this asus notebook a lot more “thin” than the same-size models in appearance(asus s5n battery), light flu breakthrough integration of new design, seamless and comfortable keyboard design, SRS virtual surround sound and other creative elements, in the 2.15 kilograms (6-cell asus battery) thin body, the HD4570 will forward a new generation of ATI-wide level independent display chip, the latest gold ratio of 16:9 screen size, such as LED backlight with a close under the forefront, this summer has brought the most mainstream thin and light the most efficient “Light” fashion.

UX50 is a gaming enthusiast and high-end users, with very good efficacy of audio-visual entertainment. With Intel’s new ultra-low voltage (ULV) mobile processor SU3500, NIVIDA forward new chip GeForce G105M independent display and 15.6-inch HD LED backlit screen, a sense of the new optical design, LED alphanumeric keyboard wonderful, SRS virtual surround sound, such as creative together with integration of elements in the thin shadow of the most entertaining area of 15.6 inches in the body, which is lower than 2.6 kilograms of body weight, than the ordinary 14-inch products are by no means inferior to, and its all-round strength of the impact of video entertainment.

TrackBack: Laptop Battery Manufacturer

Dell Laptop battery maintenance guide

Battery is the consumables, with a limited life expectancy, most manufacturers warranty for the notebook battery time ranging from three months to a year, Dell is to follow industry standards to provide a limited warranty for one year. For batteries, use the correct and proper storage, can significantly extend the Dell E1705 battery life of notebook computers.

First, the battery useing must follow some attention points.

1. When you use laptop with external power, you dont need to take out the battery.

1. There is a chip to prevent over-charging in the mainboard. When the rechargeable battery power to 100% state of charge, the charge control chips (FET) will stop charging the battery. We do not have to worry about damage to the battery.
2. Connect the 851UY 75UYF 1K500 battery to avoid loss of BIOS information.
3. To prevent a sudden loss of power break.

2. To prevent exposure to prevent damp to prevent the erosion of liquid chemicals, batteries to avoid contact with metal objects, such as exposure to short-circuit occurrence.

3. Long-term do not use notebooks, how to store the laptop battery?

We will have a period of time not to use the notebook, the 851uy 75uyf 1k500 battery is fully charged to preserve, or to be released after save electricity?

Put long-term preservation of photoelectric batteries will lose their activity and even lead to the control circuit protection self-locking and can not re-use, full of power will bring about long-term preservation of the safety problems, the best method is to save electricity use to 40 or so and then stored in cool dry place, about 20 degrees Celsius is the ideal storage temperature. Of course, the best month to come up with to use a battery, the battery can ensure a good state of preservation, but also does not allow the loss of electricity damage to the battery completely.

How can I exam the Dell battery power? (For example in cell D610 battery)

Remove the battery, press the Macbook Pro battery power signs, we can see the situation of the five battery status lights. For two bright, representing 40% of the electricity. Electricity on behalf of the entire light is sufficient, if the 135-light, that damage the battery.

Second, how to extend as much as possible the work of laptop battery time?

1. To reduce the screen brightness. How to adjust the brightness of the use of laptop batteries, boot by F2, into the BIOS to adjust the Brightness of Video. Or fn + down / up key combination to adjust the brightness quickly.
2. Open the CPU speedstep feature, you can greatly extend the working hours of latitude x300 battery; Cpu’s speedstep feature is enabled by default BIOS of. When using batteries, cpu will automatically down-use, in order to achieve energy-saving purpose. If not enabled, please start by F2, into the BIOS found in Performance, for the Speedstep Enable setting Enabled. (An earlier version of BIOS is the Alt + P to the sixth page, modify intel speedstep)
3. make the best use of standby, sleep and other functions. When a longer period of time without a computer, allowing notebook standby or hibernation, both to save power and extend the life of the computer. (Tips: Please confirm the successful installation of graphics drivers, power management options can be set up.)

   WINDOWS in the process of power management settings, we generally can be set to “portable / laptop” (Portable / Laptop).

   At the same time suggest that you will use the powerbook G4 battery when the wait time to close the monitor is set to 5 minutes, so when we do not operate within a certain period of time the notebook, it will direct the state of black screen, so other than the screen saver to run more power.

4. when using the battery as much as possible the closure of wireless, Bluetooth and infrared ports. At the same time to remove without the use of peripherals and to avoid the opening of a large 3D program, games and so on, in order to reduce unnecessary battery consumption.

Of course, on the controversy over the use of batteries, there are divergent views have any objection if we can http://bbs.dell.com.cn forum to ask questions, let us discuss how to maintain the battery.

TrackBakc: laptop battery blog

Notebook Battery daily maintenance FAQ

Note that these steps correspond with decision points on the flowchart and are reached directly by clicking on the diamond symbols. The text below cannot be read sequentially.

Needs AC Adapter to boot? The first step in troubleshooting your inspiron e1705 battery is determining whether it can hold enough charge to boot the notebook. Will the laptop power up and run on the battery, or does the AC adapter which doubles as the laptop battery charger need to be plugged in? Modern notebooks usually have a whole array of status LEDs that will tell you if the laptop senses good power coming from the battery charger and whether or not the battery is charging. Unfortunately, there’s no universal standard for these LEDs, their colors or their actions. Note also that we’re using the term “boot” rather loosely here. If the laptop powers up on battery, you can hear the fans and the drives, your troubleshooting problem lies elsewhere.

Life Of Battery Too Short? This is the main problem laptop owners complain about, and often for good cause. Older laptops using Ni-Cad and early Ni-MH inspiron 6400 batteries often ran for 2.5 to 3.5 hours when brand new, but within a month or so, would barely keep the notebook powered up for an hour. Newer laptops using Ni-MH and Li-ION batteries are much better, often holding onto a three hour life through hundreds of charge and discharge cycles. The first line of defense against complaints about battery life by the manufacturers is always, “Did you charge and operate the battery according to the manual?” Unfortunately, different laptop manufacturers seem to disagree over how to best treat GD761 batteries of the same technology, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the differences extend to different models from the same manufacturer.

If the laptop’s Dell D610 battery life has been slowly degrading over time, it’s probably operating more or less in accordance with plan, but if you find the operating life shortened by more than 15% or 20% within the first few months, there’s probably something wrong. Batteries of all technologies can be “trained” to perform poorly through non-ideal usage patterns, but the Li-ION battery technology is pretty resistant, and as long as you run them all the way down once a month or so, you can probably prevent any serious charging memory issues.

Is Battery New? Purchasers of brand-new laptops are often surprised to find the battery is dead, or runs down very quickly. Even if the a1175 battery was fully charged when the laptop was boxed for shipment, that box may have been sitting in a warehouse for six months or a year before you purchased it in a store, more than enough time for a notebook battery to self discharge to an appreciable degree, even if it’s not being drawn upon. If the battery isn’t new, and you just received the laptop as a hand-me-down or purchased it second hand, there’s no reason to expect that a short Ibook G4 battery life is due to anything other than an aged battery. You can try to recondition the battery (see the laptop manufacturer website for for software that may be available), but odds are the battery simply can’t hold a charge the way it did when it was new.

User Condition Powerbook G4 Battery? Some manufacturers may condition the battery before installation in the laptop, others expect you to read the owners manual instructions and do it yourself in the first few days you own the laptop. The most general procedure is to charge the battery fully before use (leaving it on the AC battery charger overnight is best), and then to run exclusively on battery until the battery is discharged. Some brands suggest you run until the operating system warns of low battery life remaining, which could be anywhere from 10% to 3% remaining on standard settings. Others recommend that you run the laptop until it shuts itself down. This doesn’t mean that you have to sit there working for three or four hours, you can run the Macbook Pro battery down over multiple sessions over multiple days. The important thing is not to plug the AC power adapter back in and start recharging the battery until it is completely run down. The condition process generally requires you to go through this cycle three times in a row.

Runs Always With aspire 3000 Battery? If the owners manual for your notebook suggests removing the battery when plugged in for prolonged periods, doing so may greatly prolong the battery life in terms of both charge cycles and years. Personally, I tend to be lazy and just leave the battery in all the time, despite the fact I almost always work plugged in. The battery life on the first couple Toshiba’s I owned dropped down to a half hour or so of running time within a few months my buying them, so it may have been my fault. Li-ION Aspire 3000 batteries are much more friendly to poor power management habits, but you should run them down to empty once a month to keep them from developing a memory.

Battery conditioning means training the individual LCBTP03003 battery cells into a pattern of giving as much power as they can and accepting the largest charge that they can. It would take an advanced chemistry text and a person much smarter than I to describe the underlying reasons for battery memory, and the techniques for best charging and storing batteries sometimes contradict one another. Once a laptop battery pack is conditioned, you may still need to run it all the way down once a month for best performance, especially if you normally work with the laptop plugged in. It’s important to read the owners manual section on battery life, because different models ship with different battery technologies, and the best practices to extend the battery life may not be the same.

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All of our products have passed strict quality assurance procedures such as CE, UL, and ISO9001/9002 certifications; we are all about creating value for our customers, High Quality and Low Price, Low Price and High Quality, at Ecsem those two always go hand in hand. Having an SGS ISO9001:9002 certified factory in Mainland China with in-house SMT machines helps in keeping the batteries cost down.

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By accomplishing that, we will build Ecsem into a top class global laptop batteries provider and will aspire to become one of the most admired names in this industry, while providing highest level of rewards to our people, our customers.

Ecsem’s Vision is to create unbeatable value for our customers by providing high quality products with world class design at low prices, our Mission is to amaze and delight our customers with flawless delivery of such products. As far as creating value is concerned, we are the UNBEATABLE CHAMPIONS. And we have only one goal: make your business a WINNER.