When Should I Replace My Laptop Battery?

Laptop battery performance degrades over time, but how do you know: "When should I replace my laptop battery?" We want to talk about the signs of battery wear and how to calibrate it now.

Your laptop's battery will have some problems after one to two years of use or about 300 to 400 charge cycles. However, if your laptop is older, the used battery life is more. Therefore, you should replace the laptop battery.

This article will also cover the causes of reduced laptop battery life. Finally, it would help if you did not ignore some principles to prolong its use.

Scroll down for details!

When Should I Replace My Laptop Battery?

One of the first signs that it's time to replace the laptop battery is when you see it charging forever without a full charge. If you hesitate to replace it, it can end up with your laptop shutting down unexpectedly.

First, we want to mention the necessity of replacing laptop batteries. Then you'll know how to determine the right time for replacement before other parts of the device suffer domino effects.

Is It Needed To Change My Laptop Battery?

Do you think the laptop can't work without a battery? It is not a correct statement. The battery is just one of the sources of power for your device.

You can plug your laptop into AC power directly. Your device will still work with no issues to worry about.

But, if you always take your laptop out of the house, using a battery is a must. At this point, you need to think about finding a new battery to replace the damaged one.

What Does It Say To You That It's Time To Replace The Battery?

There are several manifestations to determine the breakdown of the battery. Such manifestations, as a rule, create certain inconveniences.

It can result in both battery malfunctions and failures in the power supply. Therefore, before replacing an element, it is better to diagnose the device.

You should replace laptop battery when it has the following problems:

1. Complete refusal of the gadget to work without a network connection.

2. Rapid battery discharge even if you pulled it out of the device for a while.

3. Excessively reduced laptop battery life.

4. Windows gives you a message saying ''Consider replacing your battery''. It is a reminder that it is time to replace the laptop battery.

Note that these prompts will not appear on operating systems released before Windows 7.

1. Failure to fill the battery during charging.

2. Your laptop battery appears deformed, blistered, or has a burning smell. This bad situation may affect other internal components.

As you can see, the failures that have occurred are pretty obvious. But their occurrence can also be influenced by several factors, not necessarily indicating battery wear.

The Best Way To Check If Your Battery Is Running Low

Doing a few simple steps on Windows, you can check if your laptop battery is draining or not. You follow the instructions below:

1. Connect the device to the network

2. Click the Battery icon on the taskbar

If you see the battery stop charging while it is still plugged in, you can understand that the problem is happening.

Also, you can check the battery health:

1. Press the Windows key, type "cmd" in the search box and enter. Then, click Run as administrator.

2. Command Prompt will appear. Type command line powercfg/batteryreport and enter.

3. Wait for the system for about 1 minute. This action will generate a file with all the information you need to know about your battery. Windows will tell you where it's saved in the Command Prompt window.

1. Open the Battery Report file to see the metrics. You need to pay attention to Design Capacity and Full Charge Capacity.

2. Calculate the percentage of battery that is dead manually using the following formula: 100 - (Design Capacity/Full Charge Capacity)*100. The lower the result, the older the battery.

However, basic Windows reports do not give you enough evidence that a battery replacement is necessary. You still need to do a few more analyses to determine exactly when to replace the laptop battery.

Fortunately, you can take advantage of third-party software called BatteryInfoView. It promises to give you the most detailed report on battery performance.

You need to download the archive, unpack it and run the BatteryInfoView.exe file. The Designed Capacity value shows how much the battery capacity was original.

In our case, 45140 milliwatt hours. Full Charged Capacity - the actual available capacity at the moment. We have 30,340 milliwatt hours.

The percentage remaining of the original capacity displays a value of 67.2% in the Battery Wear Level. It means that during the time that has passed since purchasing this laptop, its battery began to store energy by a third less.

Factors That Can Cause Battery Damage

Besides the natural decrease in lifespan over time, some other factors accelerate the destruction of laptop batteries. We can list a few reasons as below:

• Severe heat.

• The too-frequent alternation of the discharge/charge process.

• Using the device in a damp room.

• Arising from a shock or accidental fall of the device.

• Failure to comply with the rules of laptop operation.

How To Help You Postpone Replacing A Laptop Battery?

If you're hesitating in your search for a new laptop battery, you can soon take steps to help delay its replacement. Calibrating the battery is one of the things that you can do at home.

It means you need to discharge the laptop battery to recharge it from scratch completely. This action allows the battery to renew itself and helps you check how much power it has left.

Some devices come with an extension that allows you to calibrate the battery right on your laptop. In this case, you can contact the manufacturer or check out the instructions on the brand's website to understand how to calibrate the laptop battery.

Battery calibration helps you determine the health of your laptop battery. Therefore, you should perform this process periodically to ensure the life of the battery.

Besides, for the laptop battery to function for a long time, you must follow certain rules.

• Do not use up battery power completely. After the message about complete discharge appears, connect it to the power supply.

• Perform the battery discharge procedure occasionally.

• Unplug the charger when the laptop is inactive.

• Remove the battery if there is no need to use it, and it is possible to work only with the mains supply.

• To avoid the need to repair your laptop battery soon, do not expose your device to heat or sun.

• Try not to charge the battery to the limit. For some gadgets, special programs are available that block the charging process by a certain percentage (60-80%).

As you can see, the rules are quite simple, but using them will help to extend the battery life and preserve its resource for longer.

Also, remember that batteries do not last forever. At some point, your laptop battery will start to fail and run out.

If you're replacing it at home, don't forget to follow the Safety Standards for Batteries.

We hope that you are satisfied with the answer in our article. Don't let damaged batteries destroy other parts of your device.

Someone will be grateful if you share these helpful experiences with them. Thank you for reading, and we look forward to receiving your feedback in the comments section!

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