How to Recalibrate your Laptop/Notebook Battery

Posted by Ian McKenzie

Written on May 27, 2009

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Get More Juice From Your Notebook Battery

If you are a road warrier and your productivity depends on the effeciency of your notebook computer, there is little more frustrating than a battery that doesn’t hold its charge for long.

Like any rechargable battery, the ability of a notebook-computer battery to hold a maximum charge will decrease over time and with use. Lithium-ion batteries used in notebook computers have a lifespan of 300 to 500 charges. After a year of use, a Lithium-ion battery holds about 80 percent of its original capacity.

There are ways to extend a notebook battery’s life. One easy, but generally overlooked step is to calibrate the battery. When users power up in short sessions and then recharge without fully draining the battery, it reduces the amount of power available in a single charge cycle and can render the battery meter inaccurate.

Calibrating your laptop battery is a simple process:

Fully charge your battery
Go to your Control Panel: (Start->Control Panel) and open Power Options.
On the Power Schemes drop box click on “Always On. This prevents the notebook from going to sleep.
Click on the Alarms Tab and uncheck the low battery and critical battery alarms.
Unplug the AC adapter from your computer and leave the notebook running until it loses power and shuts off by itself. Don’t use your computer while it is discharging.
Reconnect the AC adapter and fully bcharge the battery
Go back into your Power Options (Start->Control Panel->Power Options) and select the power scheme you want and re-select the alarm options.

How often should you calibrate your notebook battery? HP recommends once every three months. ”Under normal usage, batteries should be calibrated a minimum of once every 3 months.”

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