Reliable battery meter for the Latitude?

The only one I use now is the one that comes with Windows 7 but it seems to be very innacurate.

Are there any programs that would provide me with a more accuarte guage for battery usage?

 

Batterybar

 

I've found the RMClock battery meter and the HWMonitor battery meter to both be fairly accurate as well.

 

Thanks guys.

BatteryBar is telling me that I have 1:30 minutes left on a full charge on Power Saver!

Has my battery really deteriorated that much in one year?

 

RMClock or HWMonitor (you need v1.15 or v1.16 I think) will tell you the current "fully charged capacity" of your battery... I don't know about BatteryBar; I've never used it.

 

HWiNFO32 is another useful program which will provide useful info on battery capacity and discharge rate. Time remaining is remain capacity / discharge rate and it is useful to see the raw data. For example, if remaining capacity = 40,000mAH and the discharge rate is 20,000mW then the remaining run time is 2 hours. The raw data let you see whether the problem lies with low capacity or high consumption.

If you are seeing a substantial battery wear then a full discharge my help the battery to recalibrate itself. The easiest way to do this is to run the computer on battery until Windows shuts down / hibernates. Then start up and go into the BIOS setup and leave the computer running until it shuts down. Then fully recharge.

John

 

BatteryBar is more accurate than RMClock and Win7. It calculates battery wear if you do a full discharge. Check out batteryuniversity.com for how to maximize your battery life and how to do a proper discharge for calibration.

 

Thanks John.

Can you recommend a good place to get an affordable replacement?

 

Look on ebay for genuine / original Dell batteries from sellers with excellent feedback rating.

John