Checking out a laptop battery

[Chris]

I want to see if a Dell Li-Ion laptop battery is OK.

The laptop has been continuously plugged in to the mains for a couple of
years from new. I would like to find how long the battery will run for
- and am wondering how to do this.

Is there a stopwatch program that will run until the laptop switches
itself off?

Or are there any suitable XP logs?

Or is there a better way of finding out?

 

[jo]

I want to see if a Dell Li-Ion laptop battery is OK.

The laptop has been continuously plugged in to the mains for a couple of
years from new. I would like to find how long the battery will run for
- and am wondering how to do this.

Is there a stopwatch program that will run until the laptop switches
itself off?

Or are there any suitable XP logs?

This laptop (Compaq) is running XP, In control panel > Power Options
there is an option for an audible warning when battery level gets to a
user defined low...

Dunno about yours, though

 

[Beck]

I want to see if a Dell Li-Ion laptop battery is OK.

The laptop has been continuously plugged in to the mains for a couple of
years from new. I would like to find how long the battery will run for -
and am wondering how to do this.

Run it from battery and see how long it stays switch on?

 

[Sparky]

Run it from battery and see how long it stays switch on?

Yea;

I poked around to find a utility that would clock a laptop until
hibernation...no luck. I've had a few laptops over the years and have
noticed that the batteries have generally degraded shortly after the two
year mark.

And degredation speeds up.

Short of finding a proggy, I'd recommend that you actually *use* it in
battery mode and just time the sucka. If you just let it idle, you're
not going to get a good sense of real-world(tm) life. Let us know if
you find something more <ahem> elegant.

regards,
Sparky

 

[Mel]

Yea;

I poked around to find a utility that would clock a laptop until
hibernation...no luck. I've had a few laptops over the years and have
noticed that the batteries have generally degraded shortly after the two
year mark.

And degredation speeds up.

Short of finding a proggy, I'd recommend that you actually *use* it in
battery mode and just time the sucka. If you just let it idle, you're
not going to get a good sense of real-world(tm) life. Let us know if
you find something more <ahem> elegant.

regards,
Sparky

Introduction: Battery Eater Pro?

Battery Eater is a testing tool intended to reveal the potential of a
notebook battery pack. Battery Eater can measure the minimum operation
time of a notebook (when all power-saving options are disabled) under
conditions close to the maximum workload (Classic mode). You should be
aware, though, that such conditions rarely occur during an ordinary use
of a notebook and should be regarded as reflecting the minimum time the
notebook can work on its battery. Battery Eater will show a result
closest to the maximum possible in the "Idle" and in the "Reader's
Test" mode (when all power-saving options are fully enabled).

Battery Eater: Advantages

- Small size of the software;
- Cost-free;
- Easy and simple to use;
- Multilanguage interface;
- Flexible testing scheme;
- Three test modes;
- You can have the program running in the background just to measure
time intervals and draw the charge level graph;
- Full information about the key system components;
- Benchmarking the performance of all computer's subsystems;
- Keeping track of all attached batteries in real time.

Testing

- Before beginning the tests, copy Battery Eater to your hard disk
drive.
- It is advisable that the name of the folder the program is copied to
is in English letters.
- Avoid launching the program from media other than hard disk drives.

To measure the time the notebook can work on its battery pack, you
launch Battery Eater and wait until the battery is fully charged. (Even
when the indicator shows a charge of 100%, the Charging status may be
shown; it is due to a measurement error of the battery controller. Wait
until the status changes to High Charge. It's now possible to run the
tests. If the "Start the test on AC power disconnect" checkbox is
checked, Battery Eater will start the test when the notebook
disconnects from the wall outlet. If necessary, the test can be
launched manually, by pressing the Shift+F3 keys. On the next startup
(after the battery spends its charge and the notebook turns off), the
utility will run automatically, inform you about availability of test
results and show them in your default web-browser. The program doesn't
require any user's intervention during the tests.

- Battery Eater Pro offers three test modes: Classic mode.
- Reader's Test mode.
- Idle mode.

http://www.mobilepc.ru/be/eng/

 

[B. R. 'BeAr' Ederson]

Or are there any suitable XP logs?

Unfortunately, the event log doesn't get any entry on hibernation. So
you'll have to use a workaround. Inside the 'Power Options Properties'
you can define programs which should be run when battery is low or
nearly finished. Look on the 'Alarms' tab.

There are many ways to use this possibility (even with on board commands
like 'time'). But I suggest using an uptime reporting program like this:

http://barnyard.syr.edu/~vefatica

In opposite to similar tools of MS and Sysinternals it does not depend
on networking settings. As command line you should use:

cmd /c uptime.exe >> uptime.log

As working directory you use the folder where you copied the 'Uptime'
program in. Make sure you did not disable the Task Planner service,
because it is needed.

BeAr

 

[jona]

I want to see if a Dell Li-Ion laptop battery is OK.

The laptop has been continuously plugged in to the mains for
a couple of years from new.

Not good ..... and a common mistake made by laptop users
guaranteed to shorten the battery life.

I would like to find how long the battery will run for
- and am wondering how to do this.

A better way to determine the battery condition is to check it's
ability to retain a full charge when not being used at all (and
unplugged from mains - duh). In your case you'll need to fully
discharge and recharge it for at least three cycles before you
can expect any accurate indication. Important is the FULL
discharge. Look on the system CD for a small DOS app that
will do this for you in DOS mode. Once you have done that,
put the fully charged machine away for a few days (or remove
the battery and operate on mains only). If, after say 5 days, it
has retained at the very least 90% of it's charge, the battery
should be OK. After that you can expect it to deliver whatever
AH (amp-hour) rating it has.

Good luck.

 

[JP Loken]

snip>
Introduction: Battery Eater Pro?

Battery Eater is a testing tool intended to reveal the potential of a
notebook battery pack. Battery Eater can measure the minimum operation
time of a notebook (when all power-saving options are disabled) under
conditions close to the maximum workload (Classic mode). You should be
aware, though, that such conditions rarely occur during an ordinary use
of a notebook and should be regarded as reflecting the minimum time the
notebook can work on its battery. Battery Eater will show a result
closest to the maximum possible in the "Idle" and in the "Reader's
Test" mode (when all power-saving options are fully enabled).

<snip>

I'm impressed(again).
There seems to be no end to all the purposes there are freeware for.

Thanks for this one. I will use it to decide which one of two second-hand
notebooks I'll buy.