How to set a low battery warning on a Windows tablet or laptop

So you see schematic diagram low voltage indicator for a car lead-acid battery. It is very important to monitor the battery charge in order to prevent excessive battery discharge, which can have negative consequences for your rechargeable battery. We will make a simple device that monitors the voltage level at the battery terminals.

Having collected a simple and very useful diagram sound discharge indicator, you can quickly find out about low voltage at the battery terminals and take action: charge it with a regular mains charger or through the built-in generator in transport.

The scheme consists of two parts:
the first, monitoring the potential difference And the second is the most elementary sound generator . Let's look at the principle of operation.

First, a Zener diode resistor and another resistor are connected in series. The zener diode drops the voltage for which it is designed, in our case 10 V, its technical documentation (1N4740A) indicates a maximum power of 1 Watt, a stabilization voltage of 10 V (ZENER VOLTAGE RANGE), which means the maximum permissible current is 1W/10V=0.1A , but in fact 91 mA (REGULATOR CURRENT), the rated stabilization current is 25 mA (TEST CURRENT).

Let's calculate the resistance of two resistors. As is known when sequential connection The current flows through all elements of the circuit is the same, but the voltage drop across different components varies. According to the condition, about 10 V should completely drop on the zener diode, the maximum voltage at the battery terminals is 14 V, which means 14-10 = 4 V should remain in total on two resistors R = 4V / 25mA = 160 Ohm. But in fact, we cannot accept such a large consumption at idle, so we take resistors with a much higher resistance, as a result of which the current decreases and the zener diode will drop less than 10 V. I chose 20 kOhm constant and 3 kOhm variable. The current consumption will be only about 200 µA.

To open transistor VT1, you need to apply a plus to its base, and a minus to the emitter, a voltage of approximately 0.7 V (depending on your copy), the lower resistor R2 is responsible for this, for fine tuning A pull-down resistor is used.

The base of VT2 is connected to the collector of transistor VT1. Thus, when the voltage is higher than normal (on the battery) VT1 is open and the VT2 base is connected to the negative – it is closed. When the voltage on the battery drops below the norm (you choose the norm yourself), the first transistor will close and now nothing prevents the second one from being open through a 10 kOhm resistor.

Analysis of the sound vibration generator: it consists of two transistors of different conductivity. Let us assume that at the initial moment of time all transistors (VT3 and VT4) are closed due to the fact that positive is supplied to the PNP transistor through the speaker and capacitor. As soon as the capacitor is fully charged, it will no longer conduct current to further close VT3 and now nothing prevents it from opening through resistor R4. When VT3 opens, a “plus” will flow through its EC to the base of NPN VT4 and it will also open - now current flows through the EC of the fourth transistor and the speaker (a click occurs). During this click, the capacitor is short-circuited through a resistor and open passage CE VT4, naturally it discharges, and this happens for a certain time, which depends on the capacity of the capacitor itself and the value of the resistor. As soon as the capacitor is discharged, VT3 closes again through the dynamic head coil and C1, and then everything goes the same way. Despite the simplicity of the RC sound generator, in practice it does not always work stably.

Resistor R5 100 Ohm here limits the base current of the NPN transistor.

Setting up the scheme
We must do this: connect an regulated power source to the circuit, having previously adjusted the voltage to 12 Volts (which corresponds to a discharge of 75% without a connected load (you can choose another value, table below) and changing the resistance of the substring resistor RV1, we ensure that with a small Turning the resistor bolt the speaker began to squeak, that’s the whole setting.

That is, we set such a voltage between the base and emitter of VT1, when during an unacceptable discharge the transistor is closed (my transistor had a saturation voltage of 658 mV) and with the slightest increase in the voltage on the battery, the voltage drop on R2 inevitably increases and, consequently, more U is supplied to the VT1 BE BE - it opens, closing VT2.

We make sure once again that the configuration is correct by changing the LPS voltage, it should be like this: when U = 12V or more everything is quiet, and when U is less than 12V a squeak is heard.

The circuit is very simple and I assembled it using surface-mount components, which contributed to the maximum miniaturization of the scarf, dimensions 24 by 13 mm. Consumption in offline mode is ~2 mA, and with a signal it reaches 15-20 mA.

There inevitably comes a time when your usual laptop breaks down. Or it becomes so outdated that the question of replacing it arises. But we spent so much time together...

“An old horse won’t spoil the furrow.”
(Proverb)

He became us an indispensable assistant at work and at home. And sometimes it’s a pity to part with him. You have to think about where to put the comma:

THROW AWAY, cannot be left or
You can’t throw it away, LEAVE it?

3.
4.
5.

6. They don't work internal devices: CD/DVD drive, USB ports, keyboard, monitor, touchpad
6.1.
6.2.
6.3.
6.4.
6.5.
6.6.

Thinking out loud:

upgrade,
installing another operating system,
updates and
Internet access.

Laptop upgrade

1) The first possible thought about old laptop– try to upgrade him.

The concept of “upgrade” comes from the English word “upgrade” - to modernize, improve. This means replacing the internal hardware with a more modern one.

But a laptop is not a desktop computer. Upgrading a laptop is not as simple and obvious as it seems. Most likely, it won’t be possible to change the “internals” of an old, well-worn laptop. Most likely, you will either have to part with the “old man” or find a worthy use for it in your new life.

Other operating system

2) The second thought that comes to the minds of owners of an old laptop is installing a modern operating system on it. The idea is certainly interesting. But the laptop manufacturer who designed it did not prepare its equipment to work with Windows 10. A laptop is a finished product with software.

No manufacturer will give an absentee guarantee that the laptop will run a different operating system. True, sometimes the manufacturer on its official website gives some guarantees of the possibility of converting certain laptop models to Windows 10.

Therefore, before installing on the old one Windows laptop 10, it is better to first make sure that the manufacturer of this laptop model reports that the model has been tested under Windows 10 and will work normally after installing Windows 10.

If you want to install another operating room Windows system, then a stable job under a non-native operating system will not be guaranteed by any laptop manufacturer.

You can, of course, try. It might even work out. However, the old hardware in an outdated laptop may turn out to be weak even for a seemingly unpretentious “ten”.

In addition, the laptop is a finished product. This is “hard hardware” plus “software”, as they say. Can be installed new software on old iron. But there is no guarantee that everything will work like clockwork. At a minimum, a laptop.

Updates to an old operating system

3) The third thought that comes to mind is to install new updates on the old laptop operating system. Then there is hope to “bring it up” as close as possible to modern requirements.

However, unpleasant surprises await us here: the old operating systems have already expired or are about to expire. And on the old laptop there is an old operating system: XP, seven, “pure” eight - not 8.1, for which support is still ongoing, but will also end soon.

Therefore, you will only have to limit yourself to updating, say, an antivirus. Then you can continue to access the Internet without fear. The fact is that antivirus updates take much longer than operating system updates. Updates continue for some time even after the end technical support the operating system itself.

Internet access

4) The fourth, quite obvious, thought: of course, with a working old laptop, you can still access the Internet to search there, communicate on social networks and other things. But even here unexpected troubles may await us. The browser may become outdated, and images of websites and blogs will begin to move. The browser in older laptops can be very slow; old laptops do not cope well with video content, which abounds modern internet resources.

And if you try to take advantage of the capabilities of Internet television on an old laptop, it is unlikely to succeed; the speed and power will not be enough. The same applies to Skype and other similar modern computer games, replete with video content - old laptops cannot handle this.

So, if

Replacing old hardware with new one in an old laptop does not work,
if the old native operating system, which is no longer supported by the manufacturer, cannot be reinstalled on a new one,
if you can’t turn an old laptop into an Internet browser for everyday work,

then let's see how you can still try to extend the life of an old laptop. Of course, if you really don’t want to part with him.

Old laptop overheats

If the laptop remains operational, but constantly overheats, then no matter how much you want, it cannot be used further.

Signs of a laptop overheating are:

frequent loud noise cooling fans (sometimes this is possible, but not often and not all the time);
sudden;
Besides, indirect signs Laptop overheating causes malfunctions hard drive laptop, when so-called faulty clusters appear on it every now and then, i.e. separate areas where data is not written or read the first time.

If an old laptop overheats, then first of all you need to remove everything unnecessary from it. It is necessary to remove the increased load on the laptop, if there is such a load. You can see what the laptop is loading from, which is launched from the Taskbar (right-click on the free field of the Taskbar and then select the Task Manager option from the menu).

The task manager will show what programs and processes are running on the laptop, and how many resources they need to work:

percentage of usage (CPU),
amount of allocated RAM (RAM),
how the Internet is used.

Not all applications are good for a laptop

Applications and programs that take up a lot of memory, load the hard drive and CPU. It is best to disable them and not use them on an old laptop - these could be some serious graphics and video processing programs and similar tasks.

If there are no “heavy” tasks, programs, or applications on the laptop, but it still overheats, such a laptop needs to be disassembled and cleaned. It's better not to clean the laptop yourself, but... Independent disassembly and cleaning is possible, but for this you need to have skillful hands and good skills.

After returning the laptop from repair, after cleaning it, you can be sure that it is as good as new. This is a nice gift to yourself. A kind of “let’s give ourselves the pleasure of re-purchasing a favorite laptop”!

Not enough RAM

Replacing RAM in a laptop

If the laptop does not have enough RAM to install modern software, then the operating system of such a computer will spend a lot of time exchanging information between and a special area on the hard drive that is designed to expand this memory (the so-called page file).

The more complex the tasks to be solved, the slower the computer will work, the longer the light will blink or be continuously lit, signaling that the laptop processor is accessing the hard drive. The question arises about replacing memory in a laptop.

True, sometimes prolonged access to the disk is possible if, for example, you are engaged in . This is also possible if the computer updates its software by obtaining data from the Internet.

Sometimes the disk is accessed antivirus programs and other internal processes running under the control of the operating system. This is not yet a reason to replace the memory in a laptop.

However, if a laptop user is firmly convinced that the slowdown in the laptop is due to a small amount of RAM, then it is unlikely that it will be possible to replace the memory in the laptop on your own. Here you will also have to go to service.

The service may find out that there are no appropriate RAM modules for this outdated computer model. Then you will have to come to terms with the available amount of memory and use a laptop with a small amount of RAM. We will get the so-called .

After expanding the RAM you can get significant increase laptop performance. True, after this problems may begin. Therefore, when replacing (expanding) RAM, it makes sense to immediately order a service to clean the laptop from the accumulated dust.

It’s better to do everything at once, so as not to pave the way to the service center, cursing the hour when work began to maintain the old laptop in in working condition.

Low hard drive space

Gradually, there is less and less space left on the laptop’s hard drive. Especially if it is not a very new computer, when they were still used hard disks 40 GB or even less.

In this case, in principle, you can think about replacing hard disk in a laptop. But it’s difficult to do this yourself, since the space inside the laptop is limited, and not all devices can be inserted there.

A battery becomes old when it has been charged and discharged. big number times, which happens when using a laptop for a long time. There's nothing you can do about it. Each battery is calculated by the number of charge and discharge cycles.

Battery misuse consists of frequently or excessively discharging or overcharging the laptop battery. Over-discharge is when the battery is, say, completely discharged, and then not charged at all for a long, long time. Or if the laptop for a long time lay idle, the battery was completely discharged, and then completely failed.

Excessive charging is when the laptop has been used for a long time without ever being disconnected from the 220V network. Even when the laptop was turned off, the charger plug remained connected to 220V. For new batteries of new laptops, such a constant connection to 220V is less harmful; there are various protections against battery overcharging. But for old batteries of old laptops, a similar attitude towards them is leaving them in a state permanent connection to 220V - leads to rapid battery failure.

Battery charge 100%

To be more precise, the battery does not recharge as such. The battery cannot charge more than its intended 100%. But the old battery is constantly at 100% charge level and with simultaneous connection to 220V leads to the fact that the battery begins to spontaneously and often discharge slightly (due to internal self-discharge processes) to a level slightly less than 100%, and then charge again to 100%.

Each such unnoticeable discharge and charge is equivalent to a complete discharge and charge cycle of the battery in terms of its service life. Therefore, such operation of a battery with a constant charge from 220V leads to rapid consumption of a precious resource and to battery failure.

If the laptop does not turn on at all due to battery wear, then you definitely need to remove the battery and work with the laptop only from a 220V network. If the battery, as they say, is still alive, but discharges quickly, does not hold a charge, does not provide a guarantee reliable operation from a battery without 220V, then it is better to remove such a battery from the laptop forever. To then switch to operating mode on the laptop, as on a desktop computer, that is, only from a 220V network. A little inconvenient, but it works!

Low battery

Those who leave the old battery in an old laptop and continue to work either from a 220V network or from a battery can only wish that the battery lasts as long as possible.

For old batteries, it is better to install more high threshold low battery warnings. For new batteries, the warning threshold is set somewhere around 5-10%, and for old batteries – as much as 25-35%, since a deeper discharge of the battery can lead to the laptop turning off due to the insufficient capacity of the old, already fairly worn-out battery.

Low battery warning levels are set to . The power settings program itself can be launched either from the Taskbar by right-clicking on the battery icon, or from the Panel Windows management double click left mouse button on the Power icon.

As soon as the laptop signals that the battery has been discharged to a critical level (25-35%), it is best to connect it again to 220V to charge the battery to 100% (you can do it a little lower, for example, 95-98%). And only after the battery is fully (or almost fully) charged, you can again disconnect the laptop from 220V in order to continue working from the battery.

When an old laptop is running on 220V, if its old battery is still inside it, it is completely unacceptable to leave the laptop turned off and simultaneously connected to 220V. The connection to a 220V outlet should only be from the moment the laptop is turned on until the moment it is turned off. As soon as we turn off the old laptop, we immediately disconnect it from 220V - this will be the key to extending the life of its old battery.

Laptop battery wear

A completely faulty battery should be removed from the laptop. Further work Using such a laptop is only possible with the use of a charger (power supply). True, the laptop ceases to be portable device. It can only be used where there is a connection to 220V.

Laptop power supply (charger)

An old or faulty battery can be replaced with the exact same battery, if you have the means and desire to do so. When replacing the battery with an analogue of the old battery declared by the seller, unfortunately, you may not guess correctly, and the new battery will not work. Well, if you replace it with the same one-to-one battery, you can again enjoy the opportunity battery life an old laptop from a battery.

In other cases, it is better to remove the battery from the laptop and use it as desktop computer near 220V sockets. By the way, after removing the battery the laptop will become much lighter in weight...

Internal devices do not work: CD/DVD drive, USB ports, keyboard, monitor, touchpad

Some internal devices may not work in an old laptop. It was written about above. Now let's talk about other devices.

CD/DVD drive does not work

If the CD/DVD drive in the laptop does not work, then this device, of course, can be replaced. But this is an expensive pleasure, which also requires contacting a service. In new laptops now, as a rule, internal devices for reading and writing CD/DVD disks are not installed at all, preferring not to use them at all or to connect external devices.

Therefore, when an old laptop’s built-in CD/DVD drive fails, it is better to purchase an external device (external CD/DVD drive), which can be easily and simply connected via a USB port.

External CD/DVD device with USB connection

It makes sense to do the same connection of an external CD/DVD drive when the internal drive is working, if the internal drive is not satisfied with its functionality.

For example, a laptop's internal drive may not write DVDs, since older laptop models might not have had this function at all at that time. Respectively, this disadvantage can be eliminated using an external drive.

In general, we connect an external drive through a free USB port, and calmly work with the help of a connected external device.

USB ports don't work

USB ports are quite reliable, but they can also be broken, for example mechanically, by applying unnecessary force to them.

If your laptop's USB ports do not work, you can purchase a PCMCIA controller - special device, connected to This port can be found in old laptops even more often than in new ones:

There are many board-based controllers that connect to the PCMCIA port. Among them there are USB port controllers (from one to 4) for connecting external devices:

Similar PCMCIA controllers can be used to connect a laptop to a wired Internet (via a LAN connector) or even to wireless Internet using Wi-Fi, etc. Convenient and quite affordable replacement if the corresponding internal devices or their external connectors turn out to be faulty for various reasons.

Connecting to Wired Internet Using a PCMCIA Controller

Breakdowns of the internal devices and connectors of a laptop usually occur due to barbaric handling of the laptop and its connectors, for example, by pulling out the cords from them, as they say, “with meat”. Such breakdowns can be eliminated by replacing internal devices with similar external ones, as described above.

USB hubs

If not all USB ports fail at the same time, then you can connect a “USB splitter” to one of the remaining working USB ports, which large quantities and in different configurations they are even displayed in kiosks selling “small things”, such as batteries.

USB splitters can be without a power supply:

In addition, such devices can have their own additional external power supply:

USB splitter with power supply (adapter)

Splitters with a power supply are needed to connect high-speed devices to it, such as external hard drives. If you need to connect a keyboard, mouse, etc. to the splitter ports similar devices, then the splitter does not need an additional power supply of its own.

Also, when purchasing a USB splitter with a power supply, you need to remember that the laptop can sometimes be operated on battery power without the ability to connect to 220V. With this option of working with a laptop, a USB splitter with a power supply will still work without a power supply, since there will be nowhere to connect it. And since it won’t be possible to connect the power supply somewhere, then why buy a USB splitter with a power supply?!

When choosing USB splitters, you also need to pay attention to which remaining port on the laptop the splitter will be connected to. If the remaining port is an “old” USB-2 port, there is no point in purchasing a more expensive USB-3 splitter for such a port. Well, what if it’s saved in the laptop? modern port USB-3, then to preserve all its positive characteristics in terms of speed, it is also worth purchasing a splitter for the USB-3 port.

Keyboard problem

The laptop keyboard can also wear out. The keys may become stuck, some of them may stop working.

If your laptop keyboard fails, it can sometimes help out. But for permanent job This option is unlikely to work.

If the keys on your laptop do not work, one connected via a USB port can come to the rescue.

You just need to remember that with the help of an external keyboard it may not be possible to control the laptop using special combinations keys to control speaker volume, monitor brightness, etc. You will have to do this programmatically, accessing the corresponding programs in the control panel (“Start” - “Control Panel”) if the main keyboard of the laptop is completely “not alive”.

How to make a system unit from a laptop

Using the external monitor connection mode, the laptop can become a full-fledged one. In this case, in the office (or at home) you can use a large stationary monitor, which can be very convenient at work, and when away you can use your own small laptop screen.

When using a laptop as system unit it is best to connect to it not only external monitor, but also external keyboard, and an external mouse. Then there will be a complete simulation of work on a stationary PC.

Not happy with the touchpad

Laptops usually have a built-in mouse - touchpad. It rarely breaks. But it happens that it is accidentally or specially disabled, so that when working with the keyboard, you do not accidentally move the mouse cursor by accidentally touching the surface of the laptop’s built-in mouse.

It is theoretically possible to replace the processor, motherboard and similar internal devices. But practically few people do.

A slow laptop is, unfortunately, an obsolete computer. You need to either part with it or use it for its intended purpose. What could be the purpose of an obsolete PC?

If your laptop is running slowly, there are quite a few options for using it. An old laptop can handle many tasks that don't require high speed just fine.

Examples of using an old laptop

1) It can become a TV if connected to it.

2) An old laptop can be great music center. In this case, it is advisable to connect external sound speakers good quality.

In addition, it is often impossible to listen without speakers or other broadcasts, which are now carried out in large numbers on the Internet, and the laptop’s own capabilities are very modest.

3) An outdated laptop can be used as a typewriter for etc.

4) An old laptop can be a fax machine. To do this, you need to use the appropriate programs and physically connect the laptop to the telephone network. Laptops generally cannot be connected to office telephone networks. Other voltage values are used there. And at home - please.

Of course, all of the above looks somewhat exotic. But this is written for those who want to extend the period as much as possible useful work usual technique. You can reorient your laptop to solve other tasks that may not be very common for computers.

Old laptop: don't shoot the pianist

It is possible to extend the life of your favorite laptop if it remains fully or partially operational.

It is enough just to approach the analysis of its performance with understanding, evaluate its potential capabilities and correctly connect to it the minimum necessary.

You can stay with your favorite laptop for a long time if you don’t quickly become disappointed in it.

Remember the riddle: how to measure the height of a building using a barometer and a stopwatch? Answer: you need to drop a barometer from the roof of the building. And use a stopwatch to measure the time of its flight to the ground. This is not the way to deal with an outdated laptop. Don't shoot the pianist, he plays as best he can!..

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Comments: 82 to “Old laptop: can’t be thrown away?”

All tips for dummies who only use a laptop, but don’t bother with its maintenance and cleaning. It's the same with cars. Someone goes for New Year's, and then sells the one they killed for trash... and someone goes for 15 years, and still has almost new car... Everything depends on the person. In short, Acer Extensa, 2007, I turned off the power supply because it died, I installed new disk, updated the memory, loaded 7, stripped the shell itself of excesses, the result is a good computer that can even handle old toys, not to mention music and videos, an excellent solution for the dacha. Even in the absence of the Internet. On external drives– 15 GB of movies and shows. Congratulations on that. Amen.

Well done, the result is obvious!
About 10 years ago, I was driving a car along the highway at a speed of about 120 km/h. At some point, an old big-eared “Zaporozhets” rushed by from the left as if we were standing still. The Zaporozhets had a 300 km/h speed limit sign on the rear window. Perhaps this is true...
Nobody claims that old cars, computers, laptops should be worse than new ones. But not everyone can refine their technique this way. Therefore, we are talking primarily about extending the period of impeccable service, and not about achieving performance comparable to new laptops.

Laptop 2001, Pentium III, 640 MHz, SODIMM PC100 128 MB RAM, ATI 2 MB video card. The capacitor on the power supply dried out and the laptop turned off after a slight load, a little more calls to hard drive or increasing the brightness of the display backlight, or inserting a disc into the drive. The power supply from a netbook came up, which I use only when traveling. The laptop has WIN XP SP3, but the browsers don’t work, for example, in Mozilla 39.0 the Yandex page doesn’t even load completely, it hangs in the fifth minute of loading the page and ends virtual memory. Exit: installed Opera 12.18, the Yandex weather page loads in a minute (it's really fast!!!), now it hangs on the wall and shows the weather! This is how the laptop came into honorable retirement)

Interesting, original solution! I liked your option.
Thanks for the comment!

Hello, Nadezhda!

I have a Lenovo laptop, it’s 3 years old. I don’t disconnect the battery. 2 months ago, while working on it again, the laptop turned off. After turning it on, the “battery” indicator started flashing instead of green orange, B In the native battery management utility there is an inscription that it needs to be replaced. The computer does not work on the battery, but when the power drops to 40-42%, after leaving it plugged in, the battery charges to 75-78% (always different values, because turning off , you don’t know whether now or next time the battery will be charged, or maybe it won’t). Please tell me what could be the matter.....Thanks for the answer.

Hello.
The battery must be removed from the laptop, and only work from the charger if the laptop is stationary near electrical outlet 220V. When the battery fails, it may happen that the computer will not even turn on. Similar situation very unpleasant. There is no need to wait for this, so the battery must be removed from the laptop.

“...then it is impossible to replace the memory in a laptop on your own. Here you will also have to go to the service center.”

What nonsense, author? This is done so simply that even a person completely uninvolved in computer science can easily cope with the task. Moreover, almost all laptop manuals contain instructions for users on adding/replacing memory cards.

I have a problem... the laptop was not working well, I got angry at it and hit it with my hand quite hard in the area to the right of the touchpad. After that it stopped working... at all... What could I have damaged there and can it be fixed?
The laptop turns on, but the screen is black. After pressing strl+alt+del it asks installation disk Windows, but it doesn’t boot the system...
is this really all?????????????((((((((((((((
How can I get the data out of there???

Tatyana, the laptop is made of iron, it has no emotions, it doesn’t understand emotions. Only people have the ability to feel, think, and “gush.” Of course, there is no need to “encourage” the laptop either by word or deed (with your fist). Will not help. “Don’t shoot the pianist, he plays as best he can.”
The following devices probably turned off or failed due to the impact: hard drive and CD-/DVD-room. They are the most vulnerable because they have rotating and moving parts inside them that are sensitive to vibration and shock.
Therefore, the system does not boot from the hard drive, and therefore the installation package cannot be read. Windows disk.
In principle, you first need to see if these devices have been disconnected from the power supply and from the data bus as a result of the shake. If all the contacts are in place, then there is a high probability that the hard drive and CD-/DVD-room need to be replaced. It is sometimes possible to read the recorded information from broken hard drives, but not always.
All this, from a general check of the laptop’s condition to reading important data from a broken hard drive, can be done for you at service center. You are unlikely to do this on your own.
For example, when my hard drive failed, the system administrator read data from it quite in an original way: I put the disk on the windowsill, opened the window (it was winter and frost outside), and the disk started working. Its resource was enough under these conditions to have time to read all my data onto another hard drive.

Thank you, Nadezhda, you have given me confidence that all is not lost.
Now I will probably remember for the rest of my life that I should control my emotions.
Of course you will have to go to the service center. My laptop is under warranty; I bought it not so long ago.
Could the hard drive be damaged (broken) by the impact? The work of CD-ROMA doesn't really excite me. But the information on the laptop is very important to me!!!

Tatyana, don’t tell the warranty workshop that you hit the computer. Say it just stopped loading. Like, it worked yesterday, but the next morning, no matter what I do, it doesn’t work. Perhaps this will work, then your laptop will be repaired under warranty. If computer diagnostics confirm that the hard drive is broken (you never know what else is wrong, maybe the hard drive is still working!), ask the service center to recover information from the broken hard drive. If this is possible (it may also be impossible, unfortunately), then they will do it for you, but most likely they will ask for money for it, since data recovery is most often not included in the terms of the guarantee.
Yes, the hard drive could break, as they say, first on impact, since it has many moving parts. Your CD-room may be working fine, but the BIOS settings do not indicate that you need to boot the system from it, and therefore the system will not boot from the disk Windows recovery. Therefore, the greatest probability of failure is the hard drive. But these are just assumptions. You need to contact the service to get an accurate answer.

On a Packard bell DOT SE 511 netbook I replaced the RAM from 1 to 2 gigs, after which it started up once. It works better, but doesn’t want to turn on again! I returned the original operative back, everything is normal again! How to start a two-room apartment anyway? To work as it should? Thanks in advance for your help!

What does “doesn’t want to turn on” mean? Actually, the computer is “iron”, and if it worked once, then in theory it should work many times in the same configuration. Of course, each computer has its own “character”, but usually it doesn’t manifest itself in such a way that it boots only once, and then nothing...

Perhaps it's all about the contacts in the places where the memory chips are installed (electronics is the science of bad contacts). We installed it for the first time - there was contact. Then the contact was lost. We installed the old memory - again the contact is normal. If this version is correct, then you need to try installing again new memory. Perhaps contacts will be restored.

Hello, the ASUS laptop worked for a year and a half. The battery is charged at 99-100%. And a month ago, without warning, it began to turn off at 20% of the charge, then at 30%, at 40%, now at 55% of the battery charge. Moreover, it works after a full charge Time is running out, now only 25 minutes.
And one more thing - after disconnecting without a connected laptop charger does not turn on.
Here is the last cycle - the green light “battery is charging” came on, the charge in the window was 100%, the operating time was 1 hour 38 minutes. I turned off the charging - the laptop turned off after 27 minutes, the charge after turning on was 52%.

Mikhail, your laptop battery has apparently failed. Possibly due to the fact that the laptop was constantly connected to charger, even when turned off, and the charger was constantly connected to 220V. There may be other reasons for failure; the battery itself could also be defective.
Therefore, you need to remove the battery from the laptop and work only from the charger. If you do not remove the battery from the laptop, then there may come a time when you will not be able to turn on your laptop at all, because all the energy from the charger will be taken by the faulty battery.

In winter, I also thought about buying an external hard drive for 1 or 2 TB. It was cheaper in winter in Enter. The difference between a 1 and 2 GB external HDD was somewhere around 400-600 rubles.

It is important for me to make backup copies of data and transfer data between PCs.
This means that it will not be constantly connected to the network. This means it’s better to pay extra and get 2GB. This will even be cheaper than installing an internal HDD, which costs about 4000.

So we decided on the volume and nutrition. Although the larger volume is not reliable, neither is the 2.5-inch form factor. I take 3.5 inches.

About the Buffer Volume it is clear that the larger the copy, the faster it is copied. I once thought that about 100 GB with 64 MB would be copied in an hour. Okay, this will be a compromise.

As for the Rotation Speed, if it is high, errors are possible and unreliable. But we will do the recording linearly. So the head won't jump around.

I once read how to choose, but choose according to the price-characteristics-need ratio.

Hello, I have a question. When the battery runs out, the laptop quickly turns off, you don’t have time to do anything to prevent this (connect to the network), as if I were holding down the shutdown button. Sometimes it warns, but only for a couple of seconds, I also don’t have time. How can I fix this on Win 7?

Andrey, you need to increase the threshold for turning off a laptop when the battery is low. The reason is an old battery that no longer holds a charge as much as it did when new. In Win 7, this is done by “Start” – “Control Panel” – “Hardware and Sound” – “Power Options” – “Set up a power plan” – “Change advanced power settings”. In the window that opens, click on “+” next to the inscription “Battery”, then click on “+” near the inscription “Level” low battery batteries”, set instead of the previously set parameter “On battery” and “On network” new parameter. For example, it was 10%, but it is necessary to set, for example, 25%. Then you need to click on “+” next to the inscription “Battery level is almost completely discharged.” And again increase the value of the “On Battery” and “On Mains” parameters. For example, it was 5%, then you need to set, for example, 15%.
If this doesn't help much, you can increase these parameters even more. For example, make the “Low battery level” equal to 40%, and the “Battery almost completely discharged level” equal to 30%.
If such parameters do not allow you to respond in a timely manner to messages about a low battery level or about an almost completely discharged battery, then most likely it is time to change the battery. She has aged completely.
It is also useful to check how the laptop's response to low level charge and the level of almost complete discharge of the battery. To do this, you first need to click on “+” next to the inscription “Almost completely discharged battery action” (I usually set the “Hibernation” option there), and then click on “+” next to the inscription “Low battery action” (I usually set “Low battery action” there) No action required."

I noticed that it can get very hot if Internet sites with a lot of flash content are open. And thus there is a heavy load on the processor. On Windows 7 there is a gadget showing CPU and RAM load.

Hello! This is the situation, today I downloaded a file from the Internet, and the laptop was running on battery power, before that it was connected to a charger that is always connected to the filter-carrying device, and three hours after disconnecting the laptop from the network, the battery charge dropped to 20 percent, and periodically I turn it off the laptop is connected to the network and runs on battery power, sometimes I also unplug the laptop from the network at night, the laptop is 6 months old, therefore the battery is too, I discharge the battery to 30% and then connect it to a charger. What happened to my battery if it discharges up to 20 percent when idle and disconnected from the network. The battery is lithium-ion branded from ASUS, the laptop is also from this company. Another interesting thing is: what percentage will the battery in my laptop drain in three weeks when the laptop is turned off, and what needs to be done so that after the battery is fully charged, the laptop battery does not become completely discharged in three weeks. Please answer my question?

Gosha, if after 3 hours of operation the laptop battery is discharged by 20%, then this means that everything is fine with the battery in your laptop and you don’t need to do anything with it.

Hello.
I bought a laptop today.. the battery does not charge, when I first turned it on, the battery indicator was at zero, after two hours it remained in the same place.. the charging scale does not even move, it only says that it is charging.. the operating system is 7, the laptop is new.
what to do?, please advise..

Sergey, try charging the laptop while it is turned off. Turn off the laptop, connect the charger to it and connect the charger to a 220V outlet. In this case, the battery charge indicator should light up, despite the fact that the laptop is turned off.
And you have to wait until the battery charge indicator goes out completely. If the battery charges normally, you will still have to wait a long time, several hours. A sign of normal battery charging is the heating of the charger; it should be warm or even slightly hot (but not immediately after connecting to 220V, you need to wait 20 minutes).
It may happen that this will not help either. This means that the problem is most likely in the battery itself. The point is that the battery should not be stored for long if it is completely discharged. Then you should contact the warranty service. Within 2 weeks from the date of purchasing the laptop, you can contact the place where you bought it. Later - only to the warranty workshop.

thank you very much, Nadezhda!!...it still started to charge!!..everything is fine)

Hello, the laptop is 2 months old. About a month ago the matrix was damaged, the laptop could not be turned off and it lay in this state for a month, as if in standby mode. Today the matrix was replaced, the battery is completely discharged. I've been charging for 2 hours now and it still shows 0%. and turns off when disconnected from the network. Has the battery died?

Natalya, standby mode (as opposed to sleep mode) consumes electricity, so the laptop battery is apparently completely discharged and may not be able to be charged.
When the battery is completely discharged to 0%, the battery plates quickly fail, increasing internal resistance battery (both charge and discharge), it loses its ability to charge and discharge. A completely discharged battery must be recharged as soon as possible, without leaving it in this state for a long time.
If the matrix is damaged while the laptop is left in standby mode, it is clear that the computer cannot be turned on and off normally. But you can hold the laptop power button for 10-15 seconds, and as a result the laptop will be turned off, this is - emergency mode turning off the laptop from any state, including technical problems or software freezes.
Alternatively, you could still remove the battery from the laptop. For the case with a broken matrix, this is normal way maintaining battery performance. In other cases, it is not recommended to remove the battery while it is running, including while maintaining standby mode, so that there are no problems later when booting the laptop.

Thank you, Nadezhda, it is charging, in the end it started charging,

Good evening. Nadezhda, please explain to me the essence of my problem. After 1 year of using the HP 625 laptop, a warning began to pop up in the lower right corner about the need to replace the battery. When purchasing, they did not specify how to use the battery when operating from the mains (everything worked at the same time) and...as a result, the battery gets spoiled. The battery lasted 20-30 minutes in video viewing mode, now even less. The replacement warning in the settings was disabled, the red cross disappeared, but a window appeared before starting Windows 7 max “HP BATTERY ALERT”. Is it possible to do something with this damaged, I assume, battery so that you don’t have to be tied to the cord for at least an hour? And the second question: Since the battery glitches, nothing warns about the low charge or complete discharge of the battery. It turns off without warning, even the window does not pop up when the level is low. In settings, low battery notification is ON. How can I fix this silent shutdown??? Thanks in advance for your help!!

Elena, nothing will help your battery. In order for the battery to last long, you need to keep the laptop disconnected from electrical network 220V after it is turned off. Those. turn off the laptop (Start - Shut down), and then immediately after turning off the laptop, unplug the charger from the outlet. When you turn it on, everything is the other way around, first plug the plug into a 220V socket, then press the power button on the laptop.
If the laptop remains connected to the charger, which in turn remains connected to 220V, then this is the worst operating mode for the laptop battery. It discharges a little, and then charges again (automatically) to 100%, discharges again a little, and charges again. And so many, many times. In the end, the battery “remembers” that it needs to be charged as soon as it is even slightly discharged below 100%, and this discharge threshold for it (for the battery) becomes the shutdown threshold. Why this is so must be explained based on the effects of electrochemistry, but I don’t really understand this myself. But this is a fact.
Now your battery can only be replaced with a new one. And it will get worse. If you leave everything as it is, the battery will become even worse, and eventually the charger will not have enough energy to power the laptop; all the charger’s energy will be spent on charging a hopelessly discharged battery. And the laptop will generally stop turning on from the power button, as if it were broken, although it is not.
Therefore, if you do not want to change the battery (for example, due to the rather high cost of a new battery), then the old battery must be removed from the laptop (with the laptop turned off and the charger disconnected from the 220V network). And then work only from the charger. You will never be able to work autonomously without an external power source using the battery in your laptop. The advice of “masters” who recommend improving the condition of the battery will not help either, even if this helps, it will not last for long.
Remove the battery - all warnings issued about its poor condition will disappear and stop bothering you.

Good afternoon, Nadezhda. Please tell me I bought it a few days ago Lenovo laptop on Windows 7 OS, when I first used the laptop, the battery was not completely discharged, but the percentage was very low and when charging from the network, the charging percentage reached 86% and stopped, after I removed the battery and inserted it back it reached 99%, but the next day again up to 96% it wrote that 96% is available, connected, but not charging. Then I completely discharged the battery and took out the battery for 30 minutes, after which the battery was charged to 100%, again complete discharge and it also reached 100 percent, without a battery it works fine from the mains. Should I worry and go to the store? Or now, in theory, everything should be in order and the problem was my incompetence in using the new battery? There was also a problem when watching a movie, the laptop suddenly rebooted, but there were no errors, could this be related somehow? (100% charging and the power supply was connected)

Vladimir, I assume that everything is fine with your laptop, there is nothing to apply for under warranty. New laptops are sold with a battery that is not fully charged. This is done for the purpose of their better preservation during long-term storage in trade.
After putting a new laptop into operation, you need to fully charge the battery (up to 100%) at least 3 times in a row, and then completely discharge it. And charge again to 100%, etc. At least 3 times. The last cycle should be a charge cycle, i.e. Do not leave the battery completely discharged for a long time.
During the first charge-discharge cycles, the battery may not be fully charged or may take a long time to charge. Battery charging speed depends on many factors. This also depends on the load on the charger. It is best to charge a new battery (during these 3 charge-discharge cycles) with the laptop completely turned off, so that all the power of the charger goes only to charging the battery, so that part of this power is not “diverted” to ensure the operation of the laptop.
Your problems with the first charge cycles may have been due to the fact that when storing the laptop until it was sold, its battery was too discharged. In this case, the problems you described could occur.
If you have not done 3 cycles of completely discharging and charging the battery, then I recommend that you do so. This will extend the life of your battery.
In the future, when using the laptop from the charger to extend the battery life, DO NOT leave the switched off laptop connected to the charger, which in turn is connected to the electrical network. That is, when turning off the laptop, you need to “pull out” the charger plug from the socket.
A laptop suddenly rebooting while watching a movie is a strange thing. It can't be related to watching a movie. Probably some other program was running at the same time as the movie viewing program. For example, software updates may have been installed. This often happens when working with a newly purchased computer. In this case, the update program automatically rebooted the laptop after “downloading” the updates and installing them on the PC.
You also need to remember that watching movies requires quite a lot of laptop resources, and, therefore, more power is consumed from the charger to power the computer. This means that charging a new battery while watching movies at the same time will be much slower than, for example, when the laptop is turned off.

Hello, Nadezhda! It seems to me that there is a problem with the laptop battery or maybe with the laptop itself. The fact is that the battery is charged only when the laptop is turned off, at the same time in working condition and when plugged in, the battery does not charge. The icon shows 0% charge. It only charges, as I said, when I close it, I don’t unplug it from the network. Maybe this is a matter of settings? I've already looked through everything additional settings and found nothing. The Acer laptop is new, I bought it just two weeks ago, Windows 8 OS. Please help me figure it out. Thank you in advance.

Irina, if the laptop is new, then you urgently need to contact the warranty workshop. It shouldn't be the way you describe. The problem may be in the computer, the charger, or the settings. Before the warranty expires, go there.

Hello, Nadezhda. Please tell us how the maximum battery charge mode up to 80% helps. I have a Samsung tablet (Windows 8) with a non-removable battery and a plug-in keyboard as a docking station. It is almost always used from a 220V network. How can you extend the battery life in this case?

Nikolay, if your tablet allows you to adjust the battery charge in such a way as to prevent the charge from exceeding 80%, then this is good. The fact is that it is at the stage of charging the battery from 80% to 100% that its maximum wear occurs. This is due to electrochemical processes occurring inside the battery. Therefore, I recommend using this mode (80%), despite the fact that in this case, when running on battery power, the tablet will work for a shorter amount of time, having a full battery charge of 80%.
In any case (regardless of whether the battery is charging to 100% or to 80%), to extend battery life, you need to disconnect the power supply from the electrical network if the tablet is turned off and not in use. The fastest way to “kill” your battery is to keep the tablet turned off and constantly connected to the power supply, and keep the power supply constantly connected to a 220V network.
When the tablet is turned on, you can keep it constantly connected to the power supply. In this case, it is advisable to set the maximum battery charge mode to 80%, if such a mode is provided for by the design and software of the tablet.

Thank you for your answer, Nadezhda. The tablet allows you to set maximum charge batteries at 80%, but the battery, having lost 1% charge percentage after 1-2 days, begins to charge to 80%. It turns out that 1 out of 500 (as many say) battery charge-discharge cycles are spent, based on this I believe that in this way the battery will fail even earlier. I hope that you will tell me that my fears are incorrect. Thank you in advance.

Nikolay, everything is correct. The battery loses a little charge and is recharged to 80%. But since it is only recharged to 80%, its performance lasts much longer. If there were no charge maintenance mode at 80%, then the same thing would happen when the battery is fully charged (100%). It would discharge a little (up to 98%, for example), and then recharge again to 100%. But this is precisely the worst mode in terms of battery safety.
As for charge-discharge cycles, this means a complete discharge and a complete discharge of the battery. Therefore, I don’t think that in your case you need to count to 500. Now, if you fully (or up to 80%) charged the battery, then turned off the charger and worked until the battery was completely discharged, and again charged it up to 80% or 100%, then we can talk about 500 cycles. But even at the same time, a charge of up to 80% ensures longer battery life.
In general, from the point of view of battery safety, if you use the tablet only with the charger turned on, the battery should be charged to 50%. If, of course, there is such a mode for maintaining battery life in your tablet. And a charge of up to 80% is used if the tablet is used more often on the battery than on the charger. However, if your tablet does not have a charge mode of up to 50%, then you need to use a charge mode of up to 80%, as this significantly extends the battery life.

Hello Nadezhda! I have this problem: a week ago I bought an asus x202e laptop and discovered that the battery charges very slowly! When turned on, the battery charges to one hundred percent in about 8 hours, and when turned off it takes about 5 hours! What could this problem be? ?

Svetlana, this is how it should be. When the computer is turned on, part of the charger's power is used to provide power to the running laptop. If the laptop is turned off, then all the power of the charger goes to charging the battery. Therefore, when the laptop is turned on, the battery takes longer to charge than when the laptop is turned off.
Your laptop is probably designed for long battery life, which is why your laptop battery takes so long to charge. In addition, it usually takes a long time for the battery to reach 100% after it has been charged to 90-95%.
If the laptop is completely new, then you need to fully charge the battery several times (3-4 times) (up to 100%), and then completely discharge it, down to automatic shutdown PC due to completely discharged battery.
In the future, in order to keep the battery in working condition for as long as possible, you need to unplug the charger from the electrical outlet every time you turn off the laptop.

Hello, please tell me, is it possible in Windows7 to replace the standard discharge signal with your own (I suspect in WAV format)?
If yes, how (where is it located)?

The sound there can be changed to another one from among the available sounds. As for my accompanying sound, to be honest, I’ve never been interested in this - less problems for me and my PC.

Good day, dear Nadezhda! I’m faced with a problem, I don’t know who to turn to. The day before yesterday, that is, on November 8, the electricity in our village went out all day. The power went out 4 times. At 3 o’clock in the afternoon I turned on my Toshiba and started downloading videos , after a couple of hours they turned off the power... Then they turned it on. I turned on the laptop again, all the pages remained as usual, all I had to do was connect the Internet. I did everything and started downloading the video again.. However, no luck, the lights were turned off again.. and this happened 3-4 times during the day, and I kept turning on my laptop again.. What surprised me was that after The light went out, the laptop turned off instantly, and the pages were not saved, unlike the first time.

I couldn’t download the ill-fated video. So I turned on the laptop on Friday, the 9th. At 3 pm and until 11 pm, the laptop was on fire, everything was downloading. Then I noticed that in the field where the charging icon was, there was this entry: “0% available (connected, charging) “. And this despite the fact that the laptop was turned on for 9 (!!) hours, during which time it would have at least managed to charge up!!

And today, on the 10th, everything is the same, 0% charge... If I pull out the power plug, the laptop instantly turns off... I don’t know what to do. I beg you, help me ((

Maryam, try the following. Turn off your laptop completely. Unplug the charger. Remove the battery from the laptop (on the back of the laptop, as a rule, there are 2 latches; you “unsnap” them and the battery is removed). Without connecting the laptop to the electrical outlet, press the power button on the laptop and hold it down for 15-20 seconds, then release. Of course, the laptop won't turn on, but that's not the main thing.
Then reinsert the laptop battery (remember to “snap” the latches), before installing the battery, clean the battery contacts and mating contacts in the laptop. Connect the laptop to the charger and to a 220V electrical network. Boot your laptop. Check if the battery is charging.
If the above does not help, then most likely the battery is faulty. It has a limited resource in terms of the number of charge-discharge cycles; perhaps the entire resource has already been exhausted.
If you buy a new battery, it costs about half (!) the cost of a laptop. Therefore, in in this case I recommend completely removing the battery from the laptop and using the laptop only from the charger. Of course, in the event of a power outage, the laptop will immediately turn off and will not save anything.

Thank you so much Nadezhda, I’ll try it tomorrow!!

One question, what about these battery contacts..how to clean them???Just with a cloth or brush??The same with the mating contacts of a laptop??

Contacts must be cleaned carefully so as not to break them. No water. Only alcohol, vodka is also not allowed, alcohol tinctures are also not allowed. The cloth should be lint-free so that there are no fabric residues after wiping. Completely dirty contacts (black or almost black in color, while normal contacts should be dark yellow or yellow) can be carefully, lightly scraped with the tip of a knife, but it is still better not to do this without the skills and practice. After the knife, it is better to remove all dust with the same cloth moistened with alcohol.
If you use a knife, then under no circumstances should you close the contacts with each other (you cannot connect contacts with a knife even for a split second, you cannot touch several contacts at the same time) - this can completely damage the battery.
Therefore, it is better not to use a knife - it is dangerous. It’s better to wipe the contacts with a rag moistened with alcohol (medical, technical, drinking alcohol - it doesn’t matter).
There are special wipes on sale for wiping PCs (for PC care), which are initially moistened with some kind of chemical. They can also be used to wipe contacts.

Hello, Nadezhda. Please tell me if there is a similar alarm in Win7. I looked through everything and couldn’t find it. Maybe third party programs Are there any that remind you when the battery is fully charged?

No, Danil, there is no such signal. There are signals about low battery charge and almost completely discharged battery. The battery status is indicated when it is time to charge it.
Why do you need a full battery charge signal? If for the subsequent disconnection of the charger in order to continue working on the battery, then again, why? After all, the more often you charge and discharge the battery, the faster it breaks down. A battery has a certain resource, calculated by the number of charge and discharge cycles.

The battery of the previous laptop died after it was kept constantly plugged in for several months. Therefore, the new one wanted to charge the battery up to 100% and turn it off

Danil, experience has proven that it is better to turn off the laptop from the 220 network after you have finished working with it. And “charging the battery at 100% and turning it off” is unlikely to help preserve the battery life for a long time.

Hello, I have the same problem. The laptop was disconnected from the charger for some time. But the charge itself was plugged in. When I returned and started working on the computer (laptop), it showed me that the charge was 0%
I turned on the charger, but it did not allow charging to the computer. The button first glowed blue, and then went out... What's the problem?

Ksenia, it looks like the battery is old and it’s better to remove it from the laptop. Your charger does not have enough power to charge the dead laptop battery, which is why this flickering occurs.
The aging process of a laptop battery is inevitable, and it happens sooner or later with every laptop. Restoring the battery is very problematic. Buying a new battery for a laptop is expensive; it happens that a new battery costs half the cost of a laptop.
Therefore, you should disconnect the laptop from the network, carefully remove the battery (in principle, you can throw it away), then work on the laptop only from a 220V network through a charger.
I have an old laptop, the battery is completely removed, if I work on it, then only from a 220V network.

Hello, please tell me, a window has appeared on a Samsung laptop: you want to increase the battery life, to do this, set the battery charge to 80%, but now how to set it back to 100%?

Lina, Samsung’s proposal to increase battery life is correct. Some other manufacturers (for example, Sony) also suggest setting the battery charge limit to 80% or even 50% to extend battery life. These changes are usually made special programs supplied with your laptop. IN Sony Vaio this is done by the Vaio Control Center program. And this is definitely NOT done using the standard Windows service 7 or Windows XP – “Power Options” (in “Control Panel”).
Samsung should also have similar programs. If the program is not there or could not be found, then you can try to find the appropriate options in the laptop BIOS. But you need to go into and fix something in the BIOS very carefully so as not to ruin your PC. Carefully read the instructions for your PC, it can be in paper or in electronic format, as well as on the Internet on the manufacturer’s website.
Alternatively, you can simply leave the proposed mode and charge the battery only to 80% of its capacity. This really extends battery life. True, it somewhat reduces the battery life of a laptop with the 220V power adapter disconnected.

Hello! Nadezhda, please tell me. I have the following situation: when I launch games, my computer’s power only starts working from the battery. I've already looked at the power supply settings but there's nothing there

Igor, quite a strange situation. Look at the settings of the game itself. It is possible that there is something there about the power supply.

I bought a Sony VAIO laptop, but unfortunately I doused the charger with water and it burned out. help me how to charge the battery without a charger or tell me how to turn it on without one.

Vova, you need to buy a new, similar charger: at a service center, in a store, maybe in an online store. The charger must be the same, otherwise you can easily damage the laptop. Under warranty, apparently, the charger will not be replaced for you, since the damage is your fault.

Hello Nadezhda! I have this situation: the battery on the laptop was working properly. But for 3 days now it has been showing this message: 93% available (connected, not charging). When you unplug the laptop from the power supply, it turns off immediately. According to the Everest program, the battery wear is 14%. The laptop is 1.5 years old, runs OS 7. The battery stopped working immediately. What's happening?

Oksana, hello! I assume that if the battery does not charge to 100%, then it has an internal electrical leak. This can happen either due to the old age of the battery or due to mechanical damage (hit, shaken). After turning off the external 220V power source, all the battery charge is lost through internal leakage, so there is not enough energy to power the computer.
If this diagnosis is correct, then after turning off the laptop and turning off the power from the network, after a while the battery would be completely discharged. so much so that after turning the power supply back on and turning on the laptop, the computer would not even be able to turn on. Continued operation of the laptop would only be possible after you remove the battery from the PC. Such a battery needs to be changed, or work from a 220V power source without a battery.
If the battery, after turning off the laptop and the network adapter from the 220V network, retains its charge (which will be visible after turning on the laptop again a few hours - or better yet, a day - after turning it off), then this may mean that the battery may be working. Then you can sin in the laptop BIOS. Some types of laptops come with BIOS updates. Have you installed them by chance?

The fact of the matter is that the charge remains at the same percentage. and I personally did not install the updates (unless my husband, due to his illiteracy, installed it). And what should I do now? How can I check that the problem is in the BIOS?

Oksana, you need to try disconnecting the battery (remove it from the laptop) and work only from the power supply (the battery is removed when the laptop is turned off - unload the system and turn it off external source food). After 1-2 days, you can try to insert the battery back (also with the laptop turned off and the external power source). And see what happens. After 2 days, write what happened. Has the battery died or is everything unchanged? Is the laptop running on battery power? Is the battery charging (discharging) system working?

Hello Nadezhda! I did everything as you wrote. Nothing changed. The only thing is that the battery became 89%, that is, 1% per day disappeared... and everything is as before: it says that it is connected, but it is not charging. battery wear 14%. So what should I do with her now?

Oksana, if so, then there may be 2 reasons:
1. Still, the battery has become unusable. But before changing it, it is better to contact the service to have it checked separately from the laptop on special equipment.
2. The battery charging circuit on the motherboard. There is no way around this without repairs. Diagnostics and repairs can only be done by specialists.

A simpler and easier to fix reason is poor contacts between the battery and the board where the battery connects to the board. But this is usually “cured” by disconnecting and connecting the battery. And you have already done this without noticeable success.

There is another exotic way. Sometimes it helps:
1. Turn off the laptop (“Start” – “Shutdown”).
2. Disconnect external power supply.
3. Remove the battery.
4. With the power turned off and the battery removed, press the power button on the laptop and do not release it for 15-20 seconds, no less. Then release the button. It is clear that the laptop will not turn on.
5. Insert the battery into the laptop, but do not connect to the mains.
6. Try turning on the laptop. If the procedure helped (this happens!), the laptop will turn on.
7. After loading Windows 7, check the battery level (by reading the battery indicator on the taskbar).
8. If the charge is less than 50%, then connect the charger. The message “Connected and charging” should appear.
If everything happens as described, it means you are lucky and the problem was overcome.

Hello, Nadezhda!
Recently, text and letters completely stopped being displayed on the computer screen. No matter what button you press, the screen is blank. Nothing was spilled on the keyboard, the computer is completely new, the antivirus did not detect any dangers. Without a keyboard, you know, you can’t go anywhere. If possible, Nadezhda, I beg you, please tell me something!
Thank you in advance.
Pauline.

Nadezhda, hello!
I have a laptop, so I read your articles about laptops with great interest. I already have an external drive, I thought that all my problems would be solved with it. So you write that everything needs to be rewritten to it user files. But I have to keep all the photos on PC (which is very large volume), because otherwise they disappear from the Photo Album, and without its tags you will no longer be able to find what you need. Maybe I'm doing something wrong? And also, please forgive me for stupid question: Can this external hard drive be constantly connected to the laptop? It connects to me via the network.

Natalya, the hard drive can be kept permanently connected to the laptop, unless otherwise stated in its documentation. I mean that your hard drive is connected to both the laptop and the electrical network. As a rule, external hard drives are not connected to electricity directly, but through an adapter, so the adapter remains constantly connected, which is unsafe from the point of view of electricity (not the computer). I prefer to disconnect the external hard drive from the electrical network after disconnecting it from the laptop or after turning off the laptop.
There was no need to work with a photo album. But I assume that it has settings that allow you to specify the location of photos, including on an external hard drive. Only depending on the number of connected external devices, the external hard drive may have different names, since the names of external devices are assigned dynamically as these devices are connected. Therefore, you will have to monitor this “manually”.
For example, if I connect a flash drive first, then it is assigned the name “E:”, and the second device is named external hard drive– name “F:”. If you connect them the other way around (first the hard drive, and then the flash drive), then their names will also change places.

I’ll be looking forward to hearing about the inpatient facilities. The 486 with an OS of 16Mb has been sitting idle for many years. And it’s a shame to throw it away and refuse to upgrade it, because nothing has been produced for its connectors for a long time. And what to do with it?

The topic is important and necessary. My assistant already has several bad habits.
Several keys fell out of the keyboard... I had to buy a built-in one. I would like to say - insert...
Memory has become small. In short, he's a bit old. But I want to extend its longevity.
Now another one has appeared. he took on a lot.
But not all. I will read with attention

I'm almost shocked by all the laptops (and especially netbooks) that are in abundance in stores these days.
All of them are shiny both with their screens and the frame of the screens. Work with such laptops in field conditions extremely difficult. Nothing is visible on the screen. Especially if you are wearing light clothes. Where to work with them with such characteristics? At home? But for home use, and for most users at work, stationary PCs with their comfortable keyboards and large (in resolution) and high-quality monitors. Therefore, if your laptop is broken, buy good desktops that can be upgraded to suit you for reliable and efficient operation.

What could be sadder than a suddenly dead battery in a quadcopter during a flight or a metal detector turning off in a promising clearing? Now, if only you could find out in advance how charged the battery is! Then we could connect the charger or install a new set of batteries without waiting for sad consequences.

And this is where the idea is born to make some kind of indicator that will give a signal in advance that the battery will soon run out. Radio amateurs all over the world have been working on the implementation of this task, and today there is a whole car and a small cart of various circuit solutions - from circuits on a single transistor to sophisticated devices on microcontrollers.

Attention! The diagrams presented in the article only indicate low voltage on the battery. For warning deep discharge you must manually disconnect the load or use .

Option #1

Let's start, perhaps, with a simple circuit using a zener diode and a transistor:

Let's figure out how it works.

As long as the voltage is above a certain threshold (2.0 Volts), the zener diode is in breakdown, accordingly, the transistor is closed and all the current flows through the green LED. As soon as the voltage on the battery begins to drop and reaches a value of the order of 2.0V + 1.2V (voltage drop at the base-emitter junction of transistor VT1), the transistor begins to open and the current begins to be redistributed between both LEDs.

If we take a two-color LED, we get a smooth transition from green to red, including the entire intermediate gamut of colors.

Typical difference direct voltage in two-color LEDs is 0.25 Volts (red lights up at a lower voltage). It is this difference that determines the area of complete transition between green and red.

Thus, despite its simplicity, the circuit allows you to know in advance that the battery has begun to run out. As long as the battery voltage is 3.25V or more, the green LED lights up. In the interval between 3.00 and 3.25V, red begins to mix with green - the closer to 3.00 Volts, the more red. And finally, at 3V only pure red lights up.

The disadvantage of the circuit is the complexity of selecting zener diodes to obtain the required response threshold, as well as the constant current consumption of about 1 mA. Well, it is possible that colorblind people will not appreciate this idea with changing colors.

By the way, if you put a different type of transistor in this circuit, it can be made to work in the opposite way - the transition from green to red will occur, on the contrary, if the input voltage increases. Here is the modified diagram:

Option No. 2

The following circuit uses the TL431 chip, which is a precision voltage regulator.

The response threshold is determined by the voltage divider R2-R3. With the ratings indicated in the diagram, it is 3.2 Volts. When the battery voltage drops to this value, the microcircuit stops bypassing the LED and it lights up. This will be a signal that the complete discharge of the battery is very close (the minimum permissible voltage on one li-ion bank is 3.0 V).

If a battery of several series connected batteries is used to power the device lithium ion battery, then the above circuit must be connected to each bank separately. Like this:

To configure the circuit, we connect an adjustable power supply instead of batteries and select resistor R2 (R4) to ensure that the LED lights up at the moment we need.

Option No. 3

And here is a simple circuit of a li-ion battery discharge indicator using two transistors:
The response threshold is set by resistors R2, R3. Old Soviet transistors can be replaced with BC237, BC238, BC317 (KT3102) and BC556, BC557 (KT3107).

Option No. 4

A circuit with two field-effect transistors that literally consumes microcurrents in standby mode.

When the circuit is connected to a power source, a positive voltage at the gate of transistor VT1 is generated using a divider R1-R2. If the voltage is higher than the cut-off voltage field effect transistor, it opens and pulls shutter VT2 to the ground, thereby closing it.

At a certain point, as the battery discharges, the voltage removed from the divider becomes insufficient to unlock VT1 and it closes. Consequently, a voltage close to the supply voltage appears at the gate of the second field switch. It opens and lights up the LED. The LED glow signals to us that the battery needs to be recharged.

Transistors are suitable for any n-channel with low voltage cutoffs (the lower the better). The performance of the 2N7000 in this circuit has not been tested.

Option #5

On three transistors:

I think the diagram needs no explanation. Thanks to the large coefficient. amplification of three transistor stages, the circuit operates very clearly - between a lit and not lit LED, a difference of 1 hundredth of a volt is enough. Current consumption when the indication is on is 3 mA, when the LED is off - 0.3 mA.

Despite the bulky appearance of the circuit, the finished board has fairly modest dimensions:

From the VT2 collector you can take a signal that allows the load to be connected: 1 - allowed, 0 - disabled.

Transistors BC848 and BC856 can be replaced with BC546 and BC556, respectively.

Option #6

I like this circuit because it not only turns on the indication, but also cuts off the load.

The only pity is that the circuit itself does not disconnect from the battery, continuing to consume energy. And thanks to the constantly burning LED, it eats a lot.

The green LED in this case acts as a reference voltage source, consuming a current of about 15-20 mA. To get rid of such a voracious element, instead of a reference voltage source, you can use the same TL431, connecting it according to the following circuit*:

*connect the TL431 cathode to the 2nd pin of LM393.

Option No. 7

Circuit using so-called voltage monitors. They are also called voltage supervisors and detectors. These are specialized microcircuits designed specifically for voltage monitoring.

Here, for example, is a circuit that lights up an LED when the battery voltage drops to 3.1V. Assembled on BD4731.

Agree, it couldn’t be simpler! The BD47xx has an open collector output and also self-limites the output current to 12 mA. This allows you to connect an LED to it directly, without limiting resistors.

Similarly, you can apply any other supervisor to any other voltage.

Here are a few more options to choose from:

at 3.08V: TS809CXD, TCM809TENB713, MCP103T-315E/TT, CAT809TTBI-G;
at 2.93V: MCP102T-300E/TT, TPS3809K33DBVRG4, TPS3825-33DBVT, CAT811STBI-T3;
MN1380 series (or 1381, 1382 - they differ only in their housings). For our purposes, the option with an open drain is best suited, as evidenced by the additional number “1” in the designation of the microcircuit - MN13801, MN13811, MN13821. The response voltage is determined by the letter index: MN13811-L is exactly 3.0 Volts.

You can also take the Soviet analogue - KR1171SPkhkh:

Depending on the digital designation, the detection voltage will be different:

The voltage grid is not very suitable for monitoring li-ion batteries, but I don’t think it’s worth completely discounting this microcircuit.

The undeniable advantages of voltage monitor circuits are extremely low power consumption when turned off (units and even fractions of microamps), as well as its extreme simplicity. Often the entire circuit fits directly on the LED terminals:

To make the discharge indication even more noticeable, the output of the voltage detector can be loaded onto a flashing LED (for example, L-314 series). Or assemble a simple “blinker” yourself using two bipolar transistors.

An example of a finished circuit that notifies of a low battery using a flashing LED is shown below:

Another circuit with a blinking LED will be discussed below.

Option No. 8

A cool circuit that makes the LED blink if the voltage on the lithium battery drops to 3.0 Volts:

This circuit causes a super-bright LED to flash with a duty cycle of 2.5% (i.e. long pause - short flash - pause again). This allows you to reduce the current consumption to ridiculous values - in the off state the circuit consumes 50 nA (nano!), and in the LED blinking mode - only 35 μA. Can you suggest something more economical? Hardly.

As you can see, the operation of most discharge control circuits comes down to comparing a certain reference voltage with a controlled voltage. Subsequently, this difference is amplified and turns the LED on/off.

Typically, a transistor cascade or operational amplifier, connected according to the comparator circuit.

But there is another solution. Can be used as an amplifier logic gates- inverters. Yes, it's an unconventional use of logic, but it works. A similar diagram is shown in the following version.

Option No. 9

Circuit diagram for 74HC04.

The operating voltage of the zener diode must be lower than the circuit's response voltage. For example, you can take zener diodes of 2.0 - 2.7 Volts. Fine adjustment of the response threshold is set by resistor R2.

The circuit consumes about 2 mA from the battery, so it must also be turned on after the power switch.

Option No. 10

This is not even a discharge indicator, but rather an entire LED voltmeter! Linear scale of 10 LEDs gives visual representation about the battery condition. All functionality is implemented on just one single LM3914 chip:

Divider R3-R4-R5 sets the lower (DIV_LO) and upper (DIV_HI) threshold voltages. With the values indicated in the diagram, the glow of the upper LED corresponds to a voltage of 4.2 Volts, and when the voltage drops below 3 volts, the last (lower) LED will go out.

By connecting the 9th pin of the microcircuit to ground, you can switch it to point mode. In this mode, only one LED corresponding to the supply voltage is always lit. If you leave it as in the diagram, then a whole scale of LEDs will light up, which is irrational from an economical point of view.

As LEDs You only need to take red LEDs, because they have the lowest direct voltage during operation. If, for example, we take blue LEDs, then if the battery runs down to 3 volts, they most likely will not light up at all.

The chip itself consumes about 2.5 mA, plus 5 mA for each lit LED.

The disadvantage of the scheme can be considered the impossibility customization ignition threshold for each LED. You can only specify the initial and final value, and the divider built into the chip will divide this interval into equal 9 segments. But, as you know, towards the end of the discharge, the voltage on the battery begins to drop very rapidly. The difference between batteries discharged by 10% and 20% can be tenths of a volt, but if you compare the same batteries, only discharged by 90% and 100%, you can see a difference of a whole volt!

A typical Li-ion battery discharge graph shown below clearly demonstrates this circumstance:

Thus, using a linear scale to indicate the degree of battery discharge does not seem very practical. We need a circuit that allows us to set the exact voltage values at which a particular LED will light up.

Full control over when the LEDs turn on is given by the circuit presented below.

Option No. 11

This circuit is a 4-digit battery/battery voltage indicator. Implemented on four op-amps included in the LM339 chip.

The circuit is operational up to a voltage of 2 Volts and consumes less than a milliampere (not counting the LED).

Of course, to reflect real value used and remaining battery capacity, it is necessary to take into account the discharge curve of the battery used (taking into account the load current) when setting up the circuit. This will allow you to set precise voltage values corresponding to, for example, 5%-25%-50%-100% of residual capacity.

Option No. 12

And, of course, the widest scope opens up when using microcontrollers with a built-in reference voltage source and an ADC input. Here the functionality is limited only by your imagination and programming ability.

As an example we will give the simplest scheme on the ATMega328 controller.

Although here, to reduce the size of the board, it would be better to take the 8-legged ATTiny13 in the SOP8 package. Then it would be absolutely gorgeous. But let this be your homework.

The LED is a three-color one (from an LED strip), but only red and green are used.

The finished program (sketch) can be downloaded from this link.

The program works as follows: every 10 seconds the supply voltage is polled. Based on the measurement results, the MK controls the LEDs using PWM, which allows you to obtain different shades of light by mixing red and green colors.

A freshly charged battery produces about 4.1V - the green indicator lights up. During charging, a voltage of 4.2V is present on the battery, and the green LED will blink. As soon as the voltage drops below 3.5V, the red LED will start blinking. This will be a signal that the battery is almost empty and it is time to charge it. In the rest of the voltage range, the indicator will change color from green to red (depending on the voltage).

Option No. 13

Well, for starters, I propose the option of reworking the standard protection board (they are also called), turning it into an indicator of a dead battery.

These boards (PCB modules) are extracted from old mobile phone batteries on an almost industrial scale. You just pick up a discarded mobile phone battery on the street, gut it, and the board is in your hands. Dispose of everything else as intended.

Attention!!! There are boards that include overdischarge protection at unacceptably low voltage (2.5V and below). Therefore, from all the boards you have, you need to select only those copies that trigger when correct voltage(3.0-3.2V).

Most often, a PCB board looks like this:

Microassembly 8205 is two milliohm field devices assembled in one housing.

By making some changes to the circuit (shown in red), we will get an excellent li-ion battery discharge indicator that consumes virtually no current when turned off.

Since transistor VT1.2 is responsible for disconnecting the charger from the battery bank when overcharging, it is superfluous in our circuit. Therefore, we completely eliminated this transistor from operation by breaking the drain circuit.

Resistor R3 limits the current through the LED. Its resistance must be selected in such a way that the glow of the LED is already noticeable, but the current consumed is not yet too high.

By the way, you can save all the functions of the protection module, and make the indication using a separate transistor that controls the LED. That is, the indicator will light up simultaneously with the battery turning off at the moment of discharge.

Instead of 2N3906 Any will do low-power available on hand pnp transistor. Simply soldering the LED directly will not work, because... The output current of the microcircuit that controls the switches is too small and requires amplification.

Please take into account the fact that the discharge indicator circuits themselves consume battery power! To avoid unacceptable discharge, connect indicator circuits after the power switch or use protection circuits, .

As is probably not difficult to guess, the circuits can be used vice versa - as a charge indicator.

As you know, many Windows tablets cannot boast the same long battery life that we are used to on tablets with an operating system. Android system on board, so we have to charge them much more often.

At the same time, we constantly have to monitor the battery charge level of our devices, and it would be nice if our Windows tablet or laptop itself gave us signals when its battery charge during operation (or recharging) reached certain levels.

There are currently several theories regarding what levels a tablet or laptop battery should be kept within.

One of them says that to ensure the longest possible service life, you can keep your laptop or tablet constantly connected to the charger during operation and, most importantly, do not allow the battery to discharge too much.

The second theory says that it is best to keep the charge level lithium battery ranging from 40 to 95 percent.

In both cases, we need to constantly monitor the level of discharge or charge of the battery of our devices and not allow it to go beyond the established limits.

Today I want to tell you how you can automate this process.

How to set a low battery warning Windows tablet or laptop

Low battery warnings are easy to set. To do this you need to do the following:

1. Go to “Control Panel” -> “Hardware and Sound” -> “Power Options”

2. Open the current power plan and click on “Configure power plan”

3. Click on “Change advanced power settings”

4. In the window that opens, open the “Battery” item by clicking on the “+” next to it

5. Here you can set the level at which the battery is discharged to which you will receive a corresponding warning.

Warning when your tablet or laptop battery reaches a certain level

With a warning that the battery charge of a tablet or laptop has reached a certain level when charging it, things are a little more complicated.

Here we need a special script (set of commands), which you can create in the Notepad application by simply copying the following text into it:

set oServices = oLocator.ConnectServer(".","root\wmi")

set oResults = oServices.ExecQuery("select * from batteryfullchargedcapacity")

for each oResult in oResults

iFull = oResult.FullChargedCapacity

while (1)

set oResults = oServices.ExecQuery("select * from batterystatus")

for each oResult in oResults

iRemaining = oResult.RemainingCapacity

bCharging = oResult.Charging

iPercent = ((iRemaining / iFull) * 100) mod 100

if bCharging and (iPercent > 95) Then msgbox "Battery charge: " & iPercent & "%",vbInformation, "Battery Monitor"

wscript.sleep 300000 "5 minute battery charge polling interval

wend

This script, authored by John Howard, polls the battery level every five minutes and, when it reaches 95 percent, issues a sound signal and a corresponding warning.

You can set the charge level for the warning in the third line from the bottom (iPercent > 95), changing 95 to the value you need, but not more than 99%.

After you do this, save the script to your desktop under any name, but always with the .vbs extension

For example: battery.vbs

That's it, now if you run this script, then when the battery level reaches the level you set, it will give you a warning about this. If you want the script to automatically run every time your device starts, place it in the startup folder.

You probably noticed that in the above script you can set the battery level to no more than 99%. But what if we need to receive a notification when the battery is fully charged to 100%?

In this case, you can use the script I created based on John Howard's script:

set oLocator = CreateObject("WbemScripting.SWbemLocator")

set oServices1 = oLocator.ConnectServer(".","root\cimv2")

set batItems = oServices1.ExecQuery("Select * from Win32_Battery")

while (1)

for each battery in batItems

ischarged = battery.BatteryStatus

if (ischarged = 2) or (ischarged = 3) Then msgbox "Battery is charged!",vbInformation, "Battery monitor"

wscript.sleep 300000 " 5 minutes

wend

Next time we'll talk about why some tablets drain the battery quickly in sleep mode, and also about methods to combat this problem.

This simple device will notify you that a 12-volt (for example, car) battery is low by sounding a buzzer. Appearance sound signal will indicate that the battery is low and needs to be recharged. The sensitivity threshold of the comparator is approximately 0.2 volts.

The circuit is assembled using only three transistors and can be repeated even by novice radio amateurs.

In standby mode, the current consumption is about 3 mA, and when the buzzer is operating - about 4 mA.

The device diagram is shown in the figure:

The left side of the transistor circuit T1 is a comparator that determines the voltage threshold below which the battery should not discharge. Right part transistor circuits T2 is a sound generator, and T3- amplifier.

The state of battery discharge can be approximately estimated based on the data in the table:

Voltage, V	Charge,%
12,6-12,9	100
12,3-12,6	75
12,1-12,3	50
11,8-12,1	25
11,5-11,8	0

When the 12 volt power supply is connected, the device starts working immediately, but if this does not happen, it means that there may be an error made somewhere in the installation.

Regulator R1 You should make the buzzer sound disappear when the battery is charged, then the buzzer will turn on if the voltage drops by about 0.2 volts.

Checking the circuit comes down to simple steps.

Disconnect the collector of the transistor T1 from the circuit, connecting the power, and making sure that the sound generator is working. The tone of the sound can be changed (if you are not satisfied) by selecting the capacitor value C1. After this we restore the connection of the collector T1 according to the scheme.

After this, you can proceed to setting up the comparator assembled on a transistor T1. To do this, turn on the power and measure the voltage on the zener diode with a voltmeter. ZD1: It should be 5 volts. Next, smoothly turn the potentiometer R1 and get the sound signal to appear. When you smoothly turn the slider of this potentiometer in the opposite direction, the sound should disappear.

For the final setup, it is advisable to power the circuit from a regulated DC source with a voltage of up to 15 volts. Connect in parallel to the power supply digital multimeter in voltmeter mode, set the voltage on this voltmeter corresponding to the maximum battery discharge level (according to the table above) and adjust R1 We ensure that the sound signal disappears. Fixing the engine R1 in the found position. Then we begin to smoothly lower the voltage at the power source until the buzzer sounds and make sure that it is about 0.2 volts lower than it was previously set.

At what level of voltage reduction should it work? sound notification, each user can set the regulator R1 individually.

Based on this circuit, you can make a load plug for testing batteries under load if you supplement the circuit with a powerful wirewound resistor, a resistance of about 1.2 Ohms, parallel to the power wires of the circuit. Such a load plug will allow you to check the degree of battery voltage drop when a current of about 10A flows; the permissible level of drawdown is set, as before, with a potentiometer R1.

In the circuit as a transistor T2 Only the specified type of transistor 2SC945 should be installed. T1 And T3 can be replaced with analogues, for example 2SC1213, 2N2222 or similar domestic ones KT315, KT503. Zener diode ZD1- any low-power one with a stabilization voltage of 5 volts. Buzzer– a conventional electrodynamic emitter with a winding resistance of about 50 Ohms (these are used on computer boards).