Battery Only Charging To 97% (???)

Hey guys,

I've recently noticed that when plugged in, my battery only charges to 97% and no further. It just says "plugged in, not charging" .
Is there a fault with my battery or have I done something myself within power options etc?

- Jam.

 

So, your battery charges and then stops when it reaches 97%? Or do you mean it was already on 97% when you plug it in, and simply refuses to recharge?

If the former, then it seems your battery is getting old. You might be able to fix it by fully discharging it and then recharging it. If it is the latter, it's simply a measure to prevent your battery from constantly recharging itself, and thereby increasing its lifespan slightly.

 

Check to see if you have a calibration feature. The Vaio also has a battery saver mode that charges to 80%. My other notebooks may drop down to 96% then do a top off charge.

 

Batteries lose charge over time. But when it gets to 97% unplug it and plug it back again. Sometimes that makes it show up as 100% even though its not really.

 

I've the same problem - I've (a rather old 2003) Dell Latitude D800, and the battery literally lasts 3 minutes when its disconnected - its not even long enough to list to a song!

I'm wondering if its that the battery is just knackered or does it need to be recalibrated?

I've tried a few times to find programs that recalibrate the D800 but I haven't found anything. Does anyone have any ideas for this specific (old - hence the prob) laptop?

72oo

 

a lot of these questions concerning the battery wear already have been answered in the notebook battery guide.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846

 

To OP mine is showing the same I don't think a problem I think it is the overcharge safety circuit kicking in. Why 97% I don't know as mine has showed higher but I don't worry, I mean at least it is not overcharging which would be a real problem.

72hundred a 5 year Li-Ion Batt? 3 minutes sounds about right Li-Ion have a lifespan they wear out. Actually the fact a 5 year old can even hold any charge is above reasonable expectations. So I would not even mess with calibration utilities. And most of these just improve the accuracy of the readings, not change the way the battery charges, the shut off is on board the battery not in software. I have a 2000 DeLL the battery does not hold any charge but reads 100%. It is 100% full that just happens to be 0.

 

I have two 7 year old batteries in my Dell insprion 8500, and I still get 2.5 hours of battery life out of them.
This was before Dell switched to the craptastic sony batteries.
My batteries are made by Panasonic, which is why they have lasted, and do not explode.

I have a toshiba battery in a pentium 2 laptop, which is about 11 years old, and it still gets 25 minutes.

I guess the newer batteries just arenot made as well.

K-TRON

 

K-Tron I do not doubt you. But is the information on the inevitable aging/ loss of capacity inaccurate? They are Li-Ion? Correct? Any input on this would be much appreciated as it goes against much information out there. I would like to understand better.

 

Thanks, I thought it was knackered alright, you've saved me looking around for prog's that will do no good anyway!

I might get onto to Dell, or eBay about getting a new battery. Probably the latter, for price.


72oo

 

The primary battery in my system is Lithium Ion, and the secondary battery is Lithium Polymer.

The new cells in the batteries have a charge limit capacitor in them, which is why most of the time, the battery does not charge to 100%. The potential gradient across the cells, needs to be about 0.5V, which means that the battery will only charge back up when the battery is at about 94%, which coreelates to 0.5V less than the rated voltage on the batteries.

Many of the new batteries have a charge counter in them, which is based off of a 5-5-5 timer and a resitive potentiometer. If you have ever opened up a battery, there are a few electronics inside the battery, which govern charge. In the last year or two, battery manufacturers have integrated a pcb with a counter on it. It basically monitors the battery, and counts how many times it charges.
It is genious, because the manufacturers can set the batteries to die in about 15 months, right after the battery warranty ends. This forces the consumer to buy another battery, and feed more money into the company.

Now, batteries usually wear out because if chemical deterioration right?
wrong
Batteries start to degrade very slowly, it can take 10 years.
Its the connections on the PCB, which break, resulting in battery loss. Many times the connections in older batteries will break because when the battery charges, the current running through the pcb is pretty great. That current heats up the cells and the pcb, causing decay around the connections. Laptop batteries are in series, so when one cell looses connection, the battery still works.
It is very easy to fix. Simply disassemble the battery, and resolder the connections. Of course the manufacturers do not want you to do this, so they stick a danger sign on the battery.
There are no liquid chemicals in the entire battery, they are in the cells.
When you open a laptop battery, it simply looks like a few rechargeble C batteries and two controller boards (one for charge, and the other for pulse modulation)

When these batteries degrade, or when the manufacturer wants them to degrade, simply disassemble the battery, and take out the pcb. You will find a controller on the pcb, which is usually made by ST or MAXIM. Go to mouser electronics and buy a new one for about $0.30-0.75 and solder it on. It usually has 8 leads. Then put back together, and it will charge fine.

How do I make my batteries last forever, I simply make a run around, which nullifies the point of the timer in the battery.

Here is a pic of the inside of a laptop battery:
http://www.summet.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/li-cells.jpg

K-TRON

 

K-Tron, suggestion make sticky on this as it sounds very interesting. And I will consider it. It all sounds good and you have not blown up or caught on fire as near as I can tell. But should I be concerned about those issues or is that simply a completely different issue? I will say if what they are doing has nothing to do with safety. Then I am concerned as by not maximizing the lifespan of battery's they are in fact adding to the environmental impact. If battery's lasted twice as long we would use and dispose of half as many. Laws have been passed based on much less environmental impact. Very interesting I will consider. Thanks for the input.

 

I've only had my laptop for 4 months and already the battery has bodged up? Man sony make some crap batteries. Funnly enough though, in NHC my wear level is 0% - which has to be wrong.

I've followed NBR's battery guide since I got my laptop - things like re-charge between 10% - 15%. To make sure I do this I've set my critical battery level to 10%. And about overcharging, surely all modern batteries have a trickle charge feature to prevent overcharging?

- jam.

 

In series yes, but how do you get flow if connector between cells breaks? Or, do you mean once repaired, battery still works?


Laptop batteries suck. The average guy would not know if a manufacture is trying to rip him off with a "battery count fail" feature. If you find some proof of this built in obsolescence, I'm sure some Tort lawyers would be very interested in your findings.

Interesting post!

 

Only if laptops could run NiMH cells. I still have battery bars and low resistance solder flux. 10.8v/6cells = 1.8v cells

Im tyring to figure out a way to charge my battery using my Swallow 2 Advanced charger. I cant find a custom connector to connect the battery in. Its been able to charge every battery ive ever come across so far