In the electronic and IT field there is a continuous evolution that leads to increasingly technological devices and increasingly powerful computers; despite all this progress, one of the least advanced components left on our laptop PCs is certainly the battery, whose maximum life, although increased compared to 10 years ago, is still very small (a few hours of autonomy in the best of cases). In fact, it will be difficult to find a laptop capable of staying on for more than half a day if it is powered only by battery energy.
In addition, the battery of laptops is one of the pieces that is ruined in a very short time (already after a year it starts to lose its charge) and, on older computers, the duration is so short that you can barely open a website before turn off.
But we have a buffer solution waiting to change the battery (which is always recommended after 2 years): we can try to calibrate the laptop battery .
How to calibrate the laptop battery
When you have the feeling that the battery of your laptop with Windows installed does not remain as charged as it should or that it shuts off long before reaching the 0% value (for example the notebook turns off suddenly when it still shows 20% of remaining charge) you can proceed with a recalibration of the battery .
Calibrating the battery simply means recharging it to the maximum through special procedures so that the computer light shows the real charge level .
This type of charging is very different from what we apply every day when the battery is low, because it provides very precise steps to be carried out.
The recalibration is used to make the computer understand when the battery is actually 100% charged so that the available charge indicator is accurate and correct on any operating system used.
As seen in another post, you can check the charge status of the laptop battery, while the simpler manual recalibration procedure for a laptop with Windows is as follows.
1) We open the Energy saving options screen from the Control Panel.
Click on the item " Create combination for energy saving ", select " High performance ", give it a name and click on Next .
In the dropdown menu, " screen deactivation " and " computer suspension " we select Never and we create the calibration plan.
Returning to the home screen, you must now select the newly created energy saving plan.
2) Now we have to fully charge the battery (possibly without using the PC), until the indicator on the computer indicates 100% (pass the mouse over the laptop battery icon to see the charge status).
Some recommend leaving the computer on even after charging for about two hours, as long as the adapter plug is connected.
3) Then we remove the laptop power cable and, always keeping the energy plan created before maximum power, wait for the battery to reach 0 and let the PC turn itself off.
Obviously, if you are working, make sure that there are no open programs or documents to be saved when you turn off your PC (although usually laptops save automatically before turning off).
4) The last step of the battery calibration is to fully recharge the laptop up to 100% with the PC turned off.
This is important: the PC must be turned off, so that only the motherboard electronics work for charging and not the operating system.
Before charging, some computer manufacturer guides suggest that you rest your computer by leaving it turned off for about 5 hours.
The charging time can be even higher than expected: even if it reaches 100% (we can notice it by turning off the charging light or by its color change) we keep the laptop under charge for at least another 2 hours.
5) Finally we turn on the laptop with the power supply still connected and wait for the battery indicator on Windows to indicate 100%.
After the calibration, we return to the Energy Saving Options and replace the balanced energy saving combination or the one you prefer.
This calibration process should be repeated once a year for notebook batteries that are less than 3 years old, while for all other older batteries it may be a good thing to apply it every 3 months, so as to make the most of the remaining life of the battery.
In any case, we will have to consider replacing the batteries at least once every 3 years, especially if we intend to use the laptop for a long time (with the technology that advances a laptop is quite obsolete after only 2 years).
The battery is not eternal, the calibration can be useful to take full advantage of its latest capabilities but if it is too old or ruined by inappropriate use it might be worth changing it with a new one, since spare parts of this type now cost very little (a good battery Replacement for Windows PC has prices ranging from € 30 to € 60).
Other calibration methods
In some guides that I have read in my research, we talk about alternative battery calibration.
One of them plans to charge the battery to 100% with the computer off, to disconnect the plug and then to start the PC in safe mode and leave it on in this way until the charge is completely exhausted.
Even there is that he recommends keeping it on with the Bios screen but in this way the PC would remain on for a long time and I don't think there are any benefits.
Below we can find other useful articles that I recommend reading on the subject:
- Optimize the battery life of a laptop with energy savings in Windows
- Save consumption and increase the battery life of the notebook laptop
Who has a smartphone, can also read the tips to increase battery life and make it last longer on iPhones and mobile phones
