Battery info?

Is there a way to check for battery wear on m11x with a free app? (Thinkpads come with their own app for example) I'd like to check e.g. the number of used cycles. battery wear in % and such.

I sold mine to a friend, however.... since it returned from the "depot service" I noticed the battery last only for ~4 hrs when watching movies, as before it was more 5-5.5 hrs. It didn't really bother me much (and honestly I couldn't really be arsed any more to talk to idiots @ Dell/AW Tech Support).

However, he is now complaining the battery lasts < 1 hour in general usage (browsing etc.). He said yesterday the battery was shown to be at 67% at one instant and then it dropped to 7% a minute later. He is using the original charger I used, just on european 220V AC. Which, btw, worked fine before as I recharged it a bunch of times like that.

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

You never call or write anymore, unreal25...

HWMonitor and Battery Bar will show you battery wear level, although neither report charge cycles. I'm not aware of any apps that will provide that for you.

 

I hang out on m17x and Lenovo forums.

Nevertheless, like its predecessor, Dell XPS m1330, it causes problems even when I don't have it. Statistics is disgraceful for the Dell PCs I have/had: none (0/4) worked fine straight out of the box, and only 2/4 worked fine after several patches, reinstalls and upgrades to different Windows version (Desktop Inspiron that sits in the corner and m17x). At least I wish I could upgrade to their Business support for Latitudes, that one is supposedly better.

I'm sure this m11x is not done with me.... yet. lol

 

Uh doesn't look that good. Here's the screenshot from BatteryBar:



48% battery wear?! Full lifetime keeps dropping at quite high rate.... :-/ Any chance there's a battery calibration error somewhere?

 

Ouch, how long have you had it for?

 

Ring up your buddies at support and have them send a new one. I believe there have been a couple of people here who have had the same thing occur with their batteries and I believe they were given replacements.

I think...

 

8-9 months or something. It was barely used on battery tho. The problem is, it's in Europe now, so I'll try get them send the battery to me without on-site tech (I wouldn't want him anyway for this).

 

That's the reason, you said it yourself. The battery wears down more on AC power than if you were to use your laptop on battery, let it drain all the way down, and then recharge. It's always good to let your battery drain almost all the way and recharge it sometimes. Like before you go to sleep, I'd unplug it and let it drain.

And you can let them send it to you without on site tech or even if they do send the tech out you can get the tech to just give you the battery. I did it recently, just had the tech give me the part directly.

 

Hm ok thanks. I mean the battery wear went down really drastically it used to be 3-4% or so. Then bam 30% one day, up to 50% now. I will try to reason with them tomorrow. I think laptops usually work fine on AC power, as the total number of discharge cycles matters?

I used m11x same as any of my other laptops. On XPS m1330 the battery worn off by 10% or so after 2 years.

Also one more thing, he checked the battery status on the bottom indicator (the one where u press and LEDs light up) - and that one also indicated the battery was full. Anyhow, I am still within the warranty (Just checked... 59 days left so I had it for 10 months) so I should be able to work something out.