Maintaining and Calibrating a Laptop Battery Pack

A few days ago, my laptop battery started to give up on me. The power indicator would flash and create a weird “buzzing” sound while the computer’s plugged into outlet power. Also, it seemed as if the power wasn’t connected at all sometime.

My solution to that? Calibrating the battery. I explored Google and a variety of other sources to calibrate or recondition laptop batteries. To no avail, I stopped my search there and referred to the HP manufacturer’s handbook.

Surprisingly, it offered some really helpful laptop battery calibration and maintenance tips, which I’d like to share with you:

Calibrating a Battery Pack

When to Calibrate
Even if a battery pack is heavily used, it should not be necessary
to calibrate it more than once a month. It is not necessary to
calibrate a new battery pack before first use. However, make sure
that the battery pack is fully charged,
especially if it is the only
power source.
Calibrate the battery pack under the following conditions:

? When the battery status display seems inaccurate.
? When you observe a significant change in normal battery
run time.
? When the battery pack has not been used for one month
or more.

How to Calibrate
To calibrate a battery pack, you must fully charge, fully
discharge, and then fully recharge the battery pack.

Charging the Battery Pack
Fully charge the battery pack when the notebook is in use. To
charge the battery pack:
1. Insert the battery pack into the notebook.
2. Connect the notebook to external power through an
AC adapter. (The battery light turns on.)
The battery light turns off when the battery pack is fully charged.

Discharging the Battery Pack

Disabling Hibernation
To fully discharge the battery pack, disable Hibernation
temporarily.
To disable Hibernation:
» Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar or access Power
Options > Hibernate, and clear the Enable Hibernate support
check box.

Discharging the Battery Pack
After the battery light turns off, which indicates that the battery
pack is fully charged, begin discharging the battery pack.
To fully discharge the battery pack:
1. Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar, or select Start >
Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power
Options > Power Schemes.
2. Write down the 3 settings in the Plugged In column and the
3 settings in the Running on Batteries column, so you can
reset them after calibration.
3. Select the drop-down lists and set all 6 options in both
columns to Never.
4. Select the OK button.
5. Disconnect the notebook from the external power source, but
do not turn off the notebook.
6. Run the notebook on battery power until the battery pack is
fully discharged. The battery light begins to blink when the
battery pack has discharged to a low-battery condition. When
the battery pack is fully discharged, the power/Standby light
turns off and the notebook shuts down.

Recharging the Battery Pack
1. Connect the notebook to external power and keep the
notebook connected until the battery pack is fully recharged
and the battery light turns off.
?You can use the notebook while the battery pack is recharging, but
the battery pack will charge faster if the notebook is turned off.
2. Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar or select Start >
Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power
Options > Power Schemes.
3. Reenter the 3 settings you wrote down for the 3 options in the
Plugged In column and for the 3 options in the Running on
Batteries column.
4. Select the OK button.

Related Posts

• Surviving a Laptop Spillage — I Love Lenovo Thinkpads
• Monopolistic Lawn Mower
• How To Get a Faster Internet Speed – Firefox Browser Tweak – Reduces Page Loading Time
• IBM/Lenovo’s Innovative Customer Service – New T61 Thinkpad Laptop!