Aspire 5536G and windows 7 battery problem

Hello,
for less than a year ago I bought an Acer Aspire 5536G.
It's a 64bit system but came with vista 32bit.
I had the opportunity to upgrade to windows 7 through acer, but I would receive a 32bit version.

Since I'm still in school I can get programs from MSDN AA so I got Windows 7 Pro 64bit.

At the end of the summer I received the message "Consider replacing your battery" and that I only had 30% left of the battery. From one day to another I went from a bettery time of about 2 hours to about 30-40 min

This is a computer which I use almost daily so it gets charged when it needs to.

After some searching I found out that I was not alone.

I tried diffrent solutions like booting ubuntu linux from a cd, changing the BIOS and other stuff, but non helped.

Yesterday I contacted acer telling them about my problem and today I got their reply.
According to them they don't guarantee compatibility with windows 7 even though there is a checked
box for windows 7 at their support site.

I also found this: Acer Support - Acer Aspire 5536G Notebook Specifications

So when I bought mine it came with windows 7, but not pre-installed.
The same computer comes today with windows 7 pre-installed.
So I guess that if I had bought it today with windows 7, there still wouldnt be any guarantees
that it would work like it should.

They also told me that my computer is out of support time so they will not replace my battery
for free.

The battery problem have existed for a year but they won't do anything about it.

If I wasn't a poor student I would have thrown this computer out of the window and bought another brand.

What can I do now? Just pull down my pants and let acer continue their nasty work?
If I buy another battery I will get the same problem, maybe sooner than later.

Is it possible to mod a BIOS to give win 7 the correct information about the battery?

/Marcus

 

Have you actually used your laptop for 2 hours recently (with previous system) or it's just what saw as estimated time in tray when you disconnected it?

 

that would be actual usage time.

If I don't do this command: "powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0"
I get about 10 min of battery time.

 

Well that's weird I give you that.
And after those 10min it hibernates or instantly shuts down?
What's your current battery capacity compared to its original capacity according to let's say HWMonitor?

 

HW monitor doesnt show me those values, but Battery Care does:
Model: SONYCorp AS07A41
Designed Capacity: 48840 mWh
Total Capacity: 14652 mWh
Current Capacity: 14652 mWh
Tension: 12219 mV

EDIT:
The rating on the label on the battery says: 4400 mAh, 49 Wh

 

Well according to a battery chip you have 30% of the original capacity left so Windows is not to blame here.
Coincidentally I have the very same AS07A41 battery in my Aspire 5740G (that I'm using right now) and it's working fine under Win 7 however what I've observed is that the battery seem to calibrate one way only- if it decides that you've lost let's say 20% of your original capacity there's a certain point where you are at 0% and still working but the battery will not decrease the 20% value.
There are original batteries that can substitute AS07A41- also used in Acer notebooks- I'd recommend you buy something other than AS07A41 (if you decide to do so)

 

a 70% loss of capacity in just a little over 6 months is not ok.

This is the battery that came with the computer, doesnt this one count as an original battery?

Which other batterys can I use and why are they better?

 

You are right- but then again if you can run on battery for over 2 hours it's not that it lost so much of its original capacity- it's more likely that the battery chip thinks it did.
These are the batteries that can be used to replace AS07A41:

BATTERY SANYO AS-2007A LI-ION 3S2P SANYO 6 CELL
4400MAH MAIN COMMON NORMAL TYPE BT.00603.041
BATTERY PANASONIC AS-2007A LI-ION 3S2P PANASONIC 6
CELL 4400MAH MAIN COMMON PSS BT.00605.020
BATTERY SIMPLO AS-2007A LI-ION 3S2P PANASONIC 6 CELL
4400MAH MAIN COMMON PSS BT.00607.015
BATTERY SIMPLO AS-2007A LI-ION 3S2P LGC 6 CELL
4400MAH 2ND COMMON BT.00607.019
BATTERY SIMPLO AS-2007A LI-ION 3S2P SAMSUNG 6 CELL
4400MAH MAIN COMMON SDI 2.2MAH F TYPE BT.00607.034

Sorry for the caps- I copied it from service manual and it was already like that.
By "original" I meant issued by Acer as there are also 3rd party batteries that you can use.

 

Correction, I used to be able to a battery time of 2 hours.
Since I got the message (COnsider....) I have 10 to 30min depending on if I used the powercfg command.

 

Well OK- it weird nonetheless.
Bottom line is- I have given you part numbers and names of official Acer batteries for your notebook and I can confirm that AS07A41 works properly under Win 7 (on a different notebook though)
It's up to you if you want to buy another battery or not.
Consider this though- 5536G was available with Win 7 so it's officially supported, the battery is also properly working under control of Win 7 (in 5738G and 5740G among others)- so it's possible that you just got a lemon.

 

Is this relevant to the 5536G?

Windows 7 Battery Notification Messages - Engineering Windows 7 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

downloads: which of the batteries that you posted is the best one?

billaboard: yes that is relevant.

I tried my battery in another acer which comes with a AS07A71 (a little change in the plastic design and 46Wh instead of 49Wh), but it comes with win7 pre-installed and it also told me to replace my AS07A41.

I have contacted acer and they basically says " you". They said that they can't guarantee that the 5536G works with win7 if it came pre-installed with winVista :S but if it came pre-installed with win7, then they can guarantee it. And they won't replace batteries. Neither will the store according to the support.
I don't like acer....but I like my 5536G laptop :-/

If I turn on my laptop without the power cord then it will shutdown before it's completely started.

 

I would go for SANYO and if that's not available for Panasonic.

 

this laptop model appears to have an unpatched ACPI incompatibility with windows 7 causing battery wear to be falsely accumulated making it appear like it has less life left then it actually does. I expect if the 5536 laptops with windows 7 preinstalled have the 1.09 or 1.11 bios's, they too will have the problem.

a brand new battery installed just today reports a 32% wear level in its first charge cycle, prior to the discharge cycle it was 3% (within manufacturing tolerance). I expect the battery itself is still only 3% worn, but the acpi chip onboard now has bad info and will not allow it to charge to the almost full capacity that it allowed earlier.

As a side note, you should also install acer powersmart management, the tray icon and stuff does not appear for some reason but it reduces the system's power usage and heat output a fair bit. typical cpu temps were 57 on the core diode, and 45 on the hdd, with the powersmart software installed they were both closer to 37c