Not getting 3 hours from my battery!

Hey guys, I just got a Compaq Presario v2310 last week, so far im happy with the performance but not with my battery life. Right now it seems im only getting around 2 hours max when running of the battery. This is only using word in my classes, with wireless turned off, the battery set on portable/laptop and cpuz is showing my cpu speed as being throttled down at 800mhz for 99% of the time (jumping to 1.6 ghz when some progs are open for a few secs). Why is my battery life poor? I havent really installed much onto what came with this laptop: windows xp home with sp2 installed, norton antivirus and thats pretty much it. The only things ive added are ad-aware, cpuz,speed fan and a few games. Could norton be running the battery down, or do i Just have a bad battery?

 

What processor does it have? I would expect that much battery life if you have a Celeron or Turion.

 

its a 1.6 Turion, but ive seen other reviews of Turions stating they get 3 hours with barebones use, which is what im doing at school. It stated before I bought this that I would be getting up to three hours, and for barbone use I should be. Here it is:
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10063268&catid=

 

There's two Turions, a ML and MT version. You'rs has the ML version. This version uses up more energy and so causes less battery life, more heat and the fan will be running more often. Though 2 hours is low even for a ML, you should be getting at least 2:30 hours.

 

Your battery may have an abnormally high wear level. You can check that with MobileMeter.

HP also has a battery tester and other diagnostics, though the battery test is only for recent HP models like yours:
http://h20239.www2.hp.com/techcenter/battery/battery_ts.htm

 

Consider getting the 12-cell battery from HP.
My L2005 w/12cell can easiely exceed 5.5 hrs with WiFi turned on and the screen brightness set to 6/7 maximum.

Link to HP 12 cell battery

 

I checked in mobile meter and it says my battery wear is 36%. Is that bad for a one week old battery, that has only been charged maybe 5 times?

 

Btw, is it normal that after a full charge, the battery light goes out. But later on, if i dont turn on the laptop, if i re plug in the ac, the battery charges for a few mins again. Is it normal for the battery to discharge like this if its not in use?

 

If the battery is reporting its wear level accurately, 36% is very high. Anything significantly above 10% within the first year is worth getting a replacement under warranty. I hesitate only because I vaguely recall other V2000z and L2000 owners suggesting that the battery isn't reporting accurately...? Can other V2000z/L2000 owners tell us your battery wear level? 36% wear does fit your short battery life results very accurately though.

 

You know....I think I've heard people with the V2000Z say that their batteries have abnormally high wear levels.

 

My 6-cell says 36% as well, on my 12-cell it says 0 or 1%. (Don't remember)

I'm using the sempr0n 3000+, on the 6-cell, I get about 1hr 50minutes running prime95 at full speed.

 

thanks for all the input guys. Yea im certainly not getting good mileage out of this battery though, i ran battery eater classic mode, and it only ran for only 64 mins...
Right now im running text mode, to see my maximum battery life. I have my brightness down quite far, i have let the battery completely drain, then fully recharge, will do the same when battery eater kills the battery.

Btw a quick question though off-topc. The f7 and f8 on the keyboard are the brightness buttons i assume, but when i press them the brightness doesnt change at all, i have to go into advanced options and change the brightness from the colour tab, how do i turn on the function of f7 and f8?

But if i cant get more juice out of this battery, im going to go back to bestbuy and see if i can get a replacement battery. Ive taken the steps hp recomends to maximize the battery (wireless off, brightness down, calibrate battery) and still its not working. Just a little frustrating since everything else with this laptop is great and im extremely happy with the performance of everything excluding the battery life

 

You have to hold down the Fn button and then press the F7 or F8 button to change the brightness.

 

MobileMeter shows my two month old 6-cell v2000 battery to have a 31% wear. This is a problem isn't it??????????

 

My 2 month old 12 cell battery registers 6% wear on MobileMeter. Question: I'll always try to run it down to below 10% before recharging because I heard this can help extend life. Any other suggestions?

Once a battery does show wear, is there any way to "fix" it, or is this impossible? Would "cycling" it help? From my radio control days, I believe this helped w/ nicads, but I don't know if li-ion respond the same way.

 

From what I understand the lith-ion is completely different. Don't quote me on this, but I think the days of completely draining your batt. down before recharding are over. I don't think it really matters...
My 6-cell (pos) is registering 31% wear, and its 2 months old!! YaY HP!
I contacted Compaq via the online chat service, just to try it out. Complete waste of time, basically the people on the other end do not know a thing. They just paste the FAQ steps, and say if this doesn't work try RESTORING it!!?? DO NOT waste your time with this service, and call the indian people on the phone. This guy wanted me to contact OfficeDepot to replace my battery??!! How would they do anything about it, when it is covered by HP/Compaq?? He obviously doesn't understand the simple policies governing their products, how can I trust in his understanding of my problem?

In the end, we all know what the underlying issue is here. These 6-cell batteries are most likely defective in some way, but aparently we have to cut off a finger to get HP to do anything about it.

Let us know if any of you resolve this issue, I am considering calling in.... Post your case # and contact person if you call. Mabey we can get them to do somthing about it...

 

I have a feeling that only the 6 cell batteries supplied with the Turion laptops, like the L2000 and V2000Z have abnormal wear levels.

 

I wonder what the wear levels on the Pentium M V2000 series are, and if their 6 cell batteries would work in the V2000z like I think they should?

 

yea this isnt good, checkin mobile meter today, the battery wear is at 39% now... After one more charge when i checked it last time. It seems like this battery will only get worse performance for me in a short-time span

 

FYI FWIW
The 6 cell battery on my 3 weeks "old" HP NX6125 (Turion ML34) shows 0% wear

 

Thanks Sake, so it looks like this issue is clustering around the v2000 series. Still keep an eye on it for the next month or so, and report back if you could.

What can we do about this? How can we take our group of people with the same problematic product and get somthing done? Does anyone have any experience with doing somthing like this?

Additionally, is anyone pretty positive that the MobileMeter SW is accurate? We know thats going to be their first defense, if confronted with this problem. What else can we ALL run to test our batteries?

LETS GET THIS BALL ROLLING!!

 

you can also check with centrino hardware control, i double checked with it and it still said 31% wear.

 

HP has been very good about replacing batteries under warranty when the wear level is significantly over 10% within the first year, at least for zv5000 and R3000 owners.

 

Mine shows 31% wear and I have used it about 1 hour on the battery.. obviously this is another crappy defect with the programming of the V2000z. they must have just taken the bios from the 12 cell battery and pasted it into the 6 cell and adjusted the wear level to reflect the smaller size. maybe this affects how the runtime is with the 6 cell or something... does this 'wear' do anything, is runtime actually affected? if you run any of the turions at max speed till the battery is dead i doubt it will run more than 1.5 hours, is this whats happening?

 

i ran max speed with the classic batery eater test, 64 minutes,,,,

 

I havent tried it on mine..
I could have told you that the hp techs are morons, if you call them they are morons that you cant understand.

 

Believe me I know, however I guess call and have it escalated to the next (English speaking) level. Maybe an L2 tech or manager will be able to do something.

What is the likelihood that we could "exchange" our 6-cells and pay some $$ to upgrade to a 12-cell? I know its a long shot, but in the event that they offer to replace. I wonder how willing they would be to do something like this. Any thoughts?

What program would they respect for its validity in giving a accurate wear %? If we say we use MobileMeter, they might just say "I am sorry, we are not familiar with that program" bs line... I have worked tech support before, I know all the lines.

:hp:

 

their level 2 dudes are the same people, they cant speak english and they dont know any more. good luck getting them to respect mobilemeter results, unless you call hp corporate and speak to a case rep you wont get anywhere.

and dude, your sig pic is nasty, get rid of that peice of crap

 

Yeah I gotta say, I don't like looking at that avatar, do you mind changing it??

 

lol, im glad im not alone on that one

 

I just got a V2310 compaq w/Turion ML30 - it came with a 6 cell battery. And yes mine dies in 2.5 hours with WIFI on. The mobilemeter reads at 37% wear!!! I dont know why its so high. Im considering getting the 12 cell but hate that it sticks out.

 

Anyone think they'll make a way for the 12 cell battery in the future (next 3-6 monts) NOT STICK OUT? Im about to return my compaq V2310 to best buy cuz 1)the battery power is so low and worn 37%!! and 2) cuz it takes 6 minutes for my startup icons to show AFTER my desktop has loaded!!!! anyone have this problem?

 

I doubt they will come out with a slimmer 12 cell battery. as for the booting time, reload your computer, it comes preloaded with un-needed junk that kills boot times.

 

HAHA, it is my Counter Strike spray. I thought it was funny, aparently I am alone on this one...

ill change it

 

I am also annoying at the fact that the 12 cell battery sticks out the back and lifts up the computer. Other extended batteries I've seen from other companies just stick out the back and are level with the ground.

 

What is the #? I didn't see it on the site

 

Does anyone know if there is a possibility of using an 8 cell or 9 cell battery with the v2000/z/? I've seen other HP notebooks with such battteries but they don't offer them for this model

 

The only ones that work with the V2000/Z are the 6 and 12 cell. The 8 cell is for the R4000 and Zv6000 notebooks.

 

Its in the other memory conspiracy thread I created a bit ago..

 

none of the 12 cell people are getting this problem? this seems odd =x

i "think" the rule for taking care of ur lithium ion battery is to keep it charged as much as possible and to never drain it.. same goes for ipods and pda's-correct me if i'm wrong though

 

I have V2000Z with ML-37, Just browsing and word editing I got around 3:00 Hours with LOW brightness. I am UNDERVOLTING, but again that does not help much at low speed. One thing I observed is RMClock helping to reduce unnecessary speed bumps with Minimal setting. This might be helping me.

Today I used Mobile Meter and it says wear level 33%.Haa. I will check once again and see how much duration I will get this time.

As per changes from L2000 to V2000Z, I do not think there is any difference at all in bios/MB or battery for that matter. So, I guess it should be same.

But without optimizations, I think it will work for atleast 2:30Min.

Anyways, I will update once I check the timings again.

 

It is little less, but close. I was calculating something like 1:15 Min to 1:20Min based on approx Avg power figures at full load

CPU: 34 Watts, Screen: 3 Watts at second lowest,
HDD+CD: 2 watts,
Graphics: 2 Watts,
MB chipset:4 watts
LAN/WAN: 2 Watts
Memory: 2 watts for 1 stick
Total: 49 watts, but as all systems may not take all power at once(Though Batter Eater says it try to load all systems), it may be something like 40-45 watts I guess.

In 53whr battery if you consume 45 watts in an hour, remaining will only last for 10-15 min only.

I did a Battery Easter test in Classic mode, just now. But I stared after browsing for around 20 mins. Battery Eater Ran around 1:31 min.

But these are UNDERVOLT timings( Not Under clock) with CPU at full speed running with only 1.225V instead of 1.45v.

See my other thread for savings on Power at full load
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=27429

But under volting does not help saving much at low speed.

One thing I observed is, even when browsing Laptop can consume lot of power, depending on which site it is!?

Yes, that is true. Hats of to those screwy flash programmers. I saw many sites which takes 100% cpu as long as those pages are in view. Not just laptop, it is the same case with my desktop with 3.0Ghz P4. The moment those are minimized or closed processor usage drops to normal.

This has nothing to do with browser or machine. It is same with firefox or IE.

So, next time when you browse site, keep an eye on the processor usage, then you realize how much power these sites sucking from you laptop.

One more tip, the WinDVD that came with HP is screwy too, that is taking lot of processing power to just play DVD. Especially if you try to play from HDD it takes almost 90% cpu.

I installed PowerDVD and it is hardly taking 20% at the lowest processor stepping.

 

I just noticed something interesting. MobileMeter says my zv5000z's battery is reporting its Fully Charged Capacity to be slightly higher than its Designed Capacity, giving a 0% Wear Level. However, Remaining Wattage while fully charged is 15% below Designed Capacity, which I believe is the real wear level (and not bad given that it's a year and a half old). I suspect that calibrating the battery merely resets the Fully Charged Capacity number to something remotely accurate. If you calculate wear level manually by:

(Fully Charged Capacity - Remaining Capacity) / Fully Charged Capacity

do you get anything better from those 6 cell batteries?

 

Tonight I did one more test with just web browsing,downloads, driver installs/updates and some word editing, got full 3 hours( To be precise 3:10 Min), hoo.. But again that is with RMClock set to Minimal. I am thinking may be that Mobile Meter is unable to read 6 cell battery properly on V2000z!? Anyone figured out what is going on with Mobile meter?.

Anyways, IMO In typical light usage with 6cell one should get atleast 2:30Min.

 

Hi, I am also having the same problem and was wondering what can the rest of us do, who are still having battery problems? currently I am only getting about 1.00 hour of battery life. is there any way that we can get HP/Compaq to confirm a battery life issue and get replacement batteries or, its a stretch, a recall going?

~G

 

Just one hour? That is insane! Even with 100% cpu usage it should last more than that. Definitely a sign of problem. Either battery is bad or something wrong with Laptop. Did you try to uninstall all the crap HP installed(If it is hung and using 100%)?

What is your configuration and what is the CPU usage pattern?

 

So, I removed the crap that was from compaq, changed some of my settings and did a test under typical conditions and i got an amazing 2hours 10 min! more than doubble my previous battery times.

~G

 

Can you try to explain the details? what are the things you uninstalled, and what settings did you change? This may help some other members who are getting very poor battery life.

Thanks

 

In case there's still some interest in this thread, I thought I'd post this:
http://bpr.hpordercenter.com/bpr/

Apparently, HP's doing some sort of voluntary recall of a number of batteries. Give 'em your battery's number; maybe you'll get a new one for free.

FWIW: I've had my zv5000z for a little over a year. I splurged and got the 12 cell. According to MobileMeter, my battery is worn 57% after only a year's worth of use (thank you, law school). I called HP on it a month ago and I should get a new 12 cell next week.

 

HP Mobile Battery Pack Replacement Program does not including v2000 serise...