Battery Mode – battery indicator and advanced power management for Windows devices. Desktop Battery Charge

A useful free utility for laptops that replaces the standard battery indicator and offers useful additional features. BatteryCare adds its own icon to the system tray, which, when the power is turned off, changes to two numbers - battery charge in percentage and a forecast of the remaining operating time in hours/minutes. The standard Windows Power Options icon can be hidden, and the font color of the BatteryCare icon is customizable. The utility can calculate the operating time forecast independently, based on accumulated statistical data (the time until automatic shutdown/sleep or until complete discharge, at the user’s choice, is displayed).

When you hover over the icon, a window appears with the most important information: charge and remaining operating time, processor and hard drive temperatures, current energy saving plan (“maximum performance”, “balanced”, “energy saving”, etc.). The figure for the discharge and charge power of the battery in watts is useful for assessing the level of consumption of individual system components and, in general, fine-tuning energy-saving modes. It is curious that the temperature values ​​of the Core 2 Duo T9300 processor and hard drive from BatteryCare did not coincide with the data from the Open Hardware Monitor utilities (from) and, which is noticeable in the screenshot.

When you double-click on the icon, the main BatteryCare window opens, which, when you select the “Advanced” tab, shows a lot of interesting information about the battery. The battery manufacturer and nominal capacity are indicated, in addition to the same charge/discharge rates, the current maximum capacity and degree of wear, data on calibrations performed are visible.

The useful features of BatteryCare don't end there. When changing the power source, the utility can automatically activate the desired power plan. For example, switching to “energy saving” when switching to a battery, and when power returns from the network, activating back the “maximum performance” mode.

It is possible to activate pop-up notifications about the battery's full charge, low/critical percentage discharge (the degree is configurable), as well as N minutes before the end of work. Notification by sound alerts is also possible. To save battery when unplugged, BatteryCare can automatically turn off Aero effects, the Windows Sidebar, and stop some services. Statistics are kept on the number of discharge cycles and calibrations; past indicators can be manually added to the values. After a certain number of cycles, a reminder may be displayed to require a complete discharge for calibration. There is an automatic update.

In the new version of BatteryCare 0.9.10.0:

• Added optional sound notifications.
• The procedure for calculating temperatures of Intel processors has been updated.
• Minor bugs fixed.

Among free utilities of this kind, BatteryCare perhaps offers the maximum number of features.

BatteryCare 0.9.10.0(Windows, freeware)

• installer - SetupBatteryCare.zip (1.4 MB)
• portable - BatteryCarePortable.zip (1.1 MB)

Three years later, the laptop began to hold the battery for about 40 minutes instead of four hours, we decided to figure out what the reason was and find ways to solve it. For those who don't want to buy a new battery.

At first glance, the reason is obvious - the laptop battery is worn out. But I still wanted to get to the bottom of the truth and solve the problem. Our battery number is PA3832.

Modern Li-ion batteries have a controller responsible for the battery charge; it counts the number of charge-discharge cycles and calculates the percentage of battery wear. Usually, after a long battery life, the controller may give incorrect data and needs to be calibrated.

Battery controller calibration

Download and install a program for monitoring battery status BattareyBar Pro.

In terms of power supply, we set the following values:

Find out the full capacity of the battery

We disconnect the charging from the laptop and note the operating time until the message “a few minutes left until the battery is completely discharged.” Then we reboot the system, go into Bios and time the time until the laptop completely turns off. If it works in this mode for a long time, it means there is still some reserve in the battery. If it works for up to 10 minutes, then everything is fine with the controller and the battery needs to be changed or repacked.

Calibration

In essence, calibration is a complete discharge and full charge of the battery in several cycles to change the data of the battery controller.

Having completely discharged the battery, you need to charge it immediately, since Li-ion batteries are afraid of being completely discharged and may fail. After the system reports that the battery is charged, you should wait a few more hours until it is truly fully charged.

Previously, we tracked battery life in Windows and after that in Bios. Now we need to add up this time, and we will get the approximate operating time of our battery. We got 50 minutes + 40 minutes = 1 hour 20 minutes.

After fully charging, turn off the charger and look in the BattareyBar Pro program to see how much time is left. If the time has increased, then the calibration was successful; if not, we proceed to the second stage of calibration.

In order not to watch the boring Bios screen, further actions will be in Windows.

We disconnect a fully charged laptop from the charger, record the time and monitor the battery discharge through our program. When the system writes that there is 1 minute left, let the laptop work without load for the time it worked in Bios, subtracting 10 minutes from it. If you have a battery indicator on your laptop, plug in the charger when it starts flashing.

In our case it is 40 -10 = 30 minutes. When this time has passed, connect the charger again and, repeating this process again, work with the laptop as usual. During operation, after a while the battery will show the correct data.

Repacking the battery

Previously, our laptop had 4 hours of battery life, an additional 30 minutes after calibration was not enough, so we decided to replace the batteries in the battery.

First, it was necessary to disassemble the battery without damaging it. In the video you can watch the process of disassembling the battery.

The next step is to find out, using a cup, a tester and a light bulb, how worn out the batteries are in the battery. Having built a simple diagram, in the photo below

and having discharged the battery to 10.5 volts using a light bulb, all that remains is to measure each pair of batteries under load and calculate the weakest link. The battery that discharges the fastest is the problem one.

After a little manipulation, we were able to determine that the batteries were worn out almost equally and there was no obvious weak link, so all pairs needed to be replaced.

Having bought the batteries, all that remains is to replace them; if you are not comfortable with a soldering iron, we do not recommend that you do this.

After repacking, this is how the assembly turned out; the lid was not put on in order to measure the battery voltage during operation. You need to solder while trying to heat the batteries as little as possible. It is advisable to use resistance welding instead of a soldering iron.

By inserting the battery and turning on the computer, we fully charged it within 6 hours, always under supervision. A fully charged battery should read 12.6 volts; a discharged battery should read 10.6 volts.

You also need to measure three pairs of batteries for the same voltage 12.6 / 3 = 4.2 volts. If the indicators are different, discharge those pairs( light bulb), where the voltage is greater to the same values.

After disconnecting the charger, the operating time showed the same as on the old battery. For correct information about the battery, you need to flash its controller by resetting the number of charge cycles to 0.

Since we did not have the tools to program the controller, we decided to calibrate the battery using the method described above. As a result, within two days of working with the laptop, the system began to show correct battery data. Our battery shows and runs 3 hours 40 minutes.

conclusions

The easiest way to extend the life of your battery is to calibrate its controller if it shows incorrect data and the batteries are still working. Not all controllers can be configured this way, so it depends on your luck.

If you are comfortable with a soldering iron, you can restore the battery life almost like new. The main problem is finding batteries for repackaging. The ideal option is to take them from the working battery of a new, non-repairable laptop. If there is none, look for ebay.com or dx.com suitable according to the parameters.

The laptop battery is designed to last for several hours without being connected to the network. The standard resource is 100 charges and discharges, and it does not matter whether the resource consumption was partial or complete. The battery heating is controlled by a thermistor (temperature sensor).

Indicator functions
The battery charge is displayed in the notification area in the lower right corner. In Windows 7, it is possible to select a convenient power management scheme through the battery indicator or disable this icon through the “Properties” menu. Through the same menu you can return it back.

The battery charge indicator shows the current charge status in percentage and notifies you of the remaining battery life. Time display on indicators is not always accurate. It can change dramatically with different RAM and processor load. A beep will warn you if the laptop battery is low.

When plugged into a power outlet, a picture of a power plug appears in the tray and the current charge level is reported as a percentage.

Power Management Schemes
Saving battery power is possible by selecting one of the specified schemes:
1. Energy saving - reduces the performance and brightness of the PC during operation.
2. Balanced – maintains battery charge level during idle time.

Some PCs have a special driver to optimize battery performance. Sometimes it does not function correctly, particularly on Lenovo laptops. The battery is charged halfway and the process stops. The lock can only be removed by manually changing the parameters.

Reduced energy consumption
The savings will become noticeable if you turn off unused programs, wireless communications, ports, reduce the sound level, and remove unused USB devices.
You can save battery power by lowering the brightness and using simple analogues instead of powerful utilities.
It is better to choose sleep mode instead of standby mode.
It is not recommended to place the laptop on a sofa, armchair, etc. This way it cools worse, and extreme temperatures rapidly reduce the laptop’s battery charge.

To prevent the battery from deteriorating...
After fully charging, you need to disconnect the laptop from the network and do not charge it again until it is completely discharged. Periodically, a completely discharged battery should be removed and the metal contacts wiped with a soft cloth lightly moistened with alcohol.

Control widgets
Battery monitoring is possible through applications that can be downloaded for Windows 7. Widgets like Hud Launch Battery, Laptop Gauges, Battery Meter are easy to download for free. The Computer Status gadget has a similar principle of operation, which shows complete information about the state of the PC.

Turning on the laptop for the first time after purchasing it. Inclusions that were made in the retail network to check functionality do not count. All. We checked it, bought it, brought it home, turned it on. This is the first inclusion.

So, the first time you need to turn on the laptop with the charger connected. Stop tormenting the battery. She kept the laptop working as best she could before purchasing it.

Perhaps you were not the first buyer of this computer; perhaps you were not the only one who turned it on and tested it. Perhaps the laptop was checked at the factory after assembly. And the battery life was used everywhere. Enough!

In addition, a lot of time passed from the moment the laptop was assembled to the moment it was sold. All this time the battery was in the laptop and was never charged. That's why

The first thing to do after purchasing a laptop is to charge its battery.

By the way, the laptop battery is charged even when the laptop is turned off. Just connect the charger to the laptop and turn it on at 220V.

But somehow I can’t raise my hand to give advice to first fully charge the battery, and only then turn on the new laptop. It’s unlikely that anyone will have the patience for this. After all, you want to see your purchase, so to speak, in action.

So, we connect the new laptop to the charger, connect the charger to a 220V electrical network, turn on the laptop, boot it up. At the same time, the laptop battery starts charging. This charging can no longer be interrupted until the battery is charged to 100%. Even if such a charge lasts a long time, several hours, for example.

A new laptop battery must be charged to 100% until the laptop battery indicator light, which is usually found in all such devices, goes off (or changes color from yellow or red to green).

Indicators are placed only on those devices and processes that are most important for control. If there is a battery charge indicator, then the laptop battery is a very important device in the computer. Let's never forget about this.

When you turn on the laptop for the first time, be sure to achieve 100% battery charge. We do not stop charging even if the Windows indicator (the image of the battery located on the right side of it) shows 100% charge of the laptop battery: But if the light indicator built into the laptop does not indicate the end of the charge (does not turn off or change its color to green), we continue to charge the battery:

Until the battery indicator light for the laptop indicates the end of the battery charge. It will either change its color to green or go out altogether.

By the way, a flashing laptop battery indicator light means that the laptop battery is almost discharged, to a level close to 0%. Read the continuation of the topic in the following articles.

P.S. You can also read about computer literacy.

Most laptops use a series of lights to indicate the state of the computer.

Each indicator has several states, such as on, off, slow flashing or fast flashing.

They can also switch between different colors (much depends on the model).

Each computer manufacturer uses its own codes to indicate the charging status of a laptop, but there are some common features.

• NOTE: If you have problems with the charge indicator, the first thing I recommend is to calibrate the battery. How?

Charger

Most laptops show a green, blue or purple light to indicate that the battery is fully charged.

Many manufacturers indicate that a laptop is in the process of charging by showing a steady or flashing green, orange, blue or purple light.

If the battery light is green, blue or purple, then the battery is functional, regardless of whether the light is flashing color or not.

If the light is orange, the laptop is most likely charging.

Battery error

Many battery manufacturers use flashing lights to indicate that the battery's charge level is low.

In general, a laptop will quickly flash orange or red when its charge drops below a certain level while the computer is not plugged in.

If your laptop's battery light keeps flashing orange or red quickly, or if it stays red even when it's plugged into the charger, this indicates a problem with your battery or charger.

Windows charging indicator

If you're not sure what the light means, you can check your computer's charging status in Windows.

Look for the battery icon in the notification area of ​​the taskbar. If the display icon shows an electrical connector on the battery, then it is currently charging or is fully charged.

A red "X" on the battery icon will appear on the screen when Windows detects battery problems.

Hover your mouse over the icon to view the current battery level. Then a tooltip will appear with information about the current charge level and charge status.

Reset

If your laptop battery is not charging, you can solve this problem by doing a hard reset. Turn off the computer, disconnect it from the charger and remove the battery.

Follow your computer manufacturer's instructions to remove the battery.

On some computers, you may need to hold down the computer's power button for 30 seconds to reset the battery status information.

Install the battery, connect the charger, and turn on the laptop.

Battery Replacement

Over time, some batteries lose their ability to receive or hold a charge.

If your laptop battery refuses to charge, even after removal and reinstallation, you may need to purchase a new battery.

If your laptop is under warranty, or your computer manufacturer has issued a recall on your computer's batteries, you may be able to get a new battery for free. Good luck.