TM 8204 Battery Down To 2 Hours

Hi All,

I have a TM8204 and initially, it had 3 hours+ of battery life. I could eek out 3.5h if I set the screen all the way to low and didn't do much with the laptop.

But now, in a recent development, the battery life is consistently less than 2 hours - even if I set all power savings settings I can think of. That's not enough for me.

The laptop is 8 months old - bought in April 2006.

Is anyone else having this problem? Can I get the battery replaced under warranty? I have a 3 year warranty but I think I remember the battery was excluded from that.

Or does it have to do with a recent Windows XP update or the Windows XP USB bug and the built-in camera?

 

I don't know if you can get it replaced, but the battery warranty is usually one year.

 

I have a similar problem except worse down to about 45 minutes am about to try returning

 

Mine is now down to 1:30 - looks like it's deteriorating _fast_.

I checked, the battery has a 1 year warranty,separate from my 3 year laptop warranty. So should be no problem.

I just remembered that I have seen this really fast deterioration in battery life before, with my 1st gen iPod. Battery life dropped from 10 hours to 2. They replaced the iPod and it's been back to 10 every since. So there is good reason to be optimistic...

 

Update: Yellow11 posted a link to the Microsoft USB hotfix:
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q918005

This patch prevents the USB camera - built in in the TM8204 - from eating a lot of battery. Definitely improved my battery life, though not to the point of where it was before. Returning the battery tomorrow, I already have an appointment.

 

I will be very impressed if they replace a wear item like a battery under the warranty. Have you read the warranty to see what it says about batteries? I am sure there is some specific language in there, the lawyers wouldn't miss that one considering how much they charge for batteries.

 

Wooo!! Acer replaced the battery, now it's back to 3 or even 3.5 hours!



As always, Acer service was excellent about it. I went to the service center (Chiang Mai, Thailand), and within 5 minutes the staff had ordered a new battery from Bangkok. 3 days later I went back, swapped my old battery for the new one, and now everything's happy again

PRH: Yes, there is specifically a 1 year warranty on the battery. It's less than the 3 year warrantly on the laptop.. but fair enough. I know batteries tend to die after a while, especially with the heavy use I put it through.

 

congratulations for the new battery
don't use the ac adapter while the battery is fully charged or just remove ur battery when it fully chargerd