zx5000 battery life

Similar to the dv1000 thread recently posted. I have a two week old zx5000 and ran the program Battery Eater on it to test battery life, a fully charged battery lasted about 55 minutes. What!?! I know that this is not a long-lifemodel, I was expecting about 2 hours under use like watching a DVD. Should I consider this a problem for HP to deal with or is this normal?

 

watching a dvd you will not get two hours. The reason I can get 3 - 4 hours on mine is that I am doing very little harddrive and cd access which eats tons of battery up. Also, the newer zx5000s have a desktop P4 in them not the Mobile version I have in mine.

zx5000 :: 2.4M :: 512 DDR :: 40gb 4200 RPM HD :: 15.4" :: Radeon 9600 Mobilty M10 :: Aquamark3 22,856

 

So, are you saying that my findings are in the normal range? That was a stress-test, but I still thought that it would last longer. I will unplug and just use it normally tonight and see how long it lasts. I will post my findings.

 

Wow... I was just about to create the same thread. I am having MAJOR problems with my bat. life on my zx5000. It is impossible to watch a DVD running on my battery. I have a 12 cell and the most I get is 60min. I've been lazy lately and haven't called HP yet but I will soon. If im running AOL my laptop won't last more then 40min[ !]. What is that program you ran for the bat. life testing? I def. wanna get an aproximate time before I scream at the morons on the Tech line when I call.

ZX5000 - P4 2.8GHz - XP Home -15.4" WXGA (1280x800)- 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200 - 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)- 60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive - DVD/CD-RW Combo - 802.11b/g WLAN - 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - $1,096

 

It's normal. The P4 is a blast furnace that has no business being put in a notebook. If you want decent battery life, get a zv5000z series (Athlon 64, 3-4 hours with the 12 cell battery, 3 hours of DVD video play in my test) or a Pentium M laptop. Actually, the zv6000 series should be out soon.

 

Ok in fairness the program does really eat the battery, intending to show minimum battery life under maximum load, so I am hoping that real-life use will be in the 2-2.5 hour range assuming no 3D games or DVD's. Office work/browsing should last much longer. I do have a 350W inverter for emergencies. Once I get a chance to test real-life duration I will post results.

 

I was about to buy a refurbished EMachines with the A64 for $900, but found this unit for $700 after rebate brand-new, so I could not pass it up. %95 of the time it is on my desk so no real biggy, but I was hoping for better. Performance and features are fantastic for the price, I could not have done much better for twice the price. The program is called Battery Eater, I can e-mail to anyone interrested as long as I don't get 20 requests.

 

jlyttle,
Search through this forum to read my experience with hp batteries in my zx5078cl. To summarize that other thread, I downloaded MobileMeter to discover my Wear Level. I reported my Wear Level to hp via e-mail (never use the telephone support!). After 9 months, my original battery was over 50% worn. hp replaced the battery promptly. The replacement battery came with a Wear Level of 7%; it is now 2 or 3 months old and shows a Wear Level of 10%. My sister has a zx5040us and has not had much of a problem with her battery.

I think hp notebook batteries are a consumable commodity.

Jeremy
__________

 

There's an interesting thread on battery wear here. Basically, the poster reminded us that Li-Ion batteries (all batteries, really) don't like heat, and they don't like being fully discharged (which is why Windows is configured to automatically shut down when battery capacity hits 3%). The 12 cell battery in my year-old zv5000z Athlon 64 notebook is still at 0% wear, partially because the notebook spends most of its time at a very cool 1GHz @ 0.8V core (undervolted), partially because I live in Michigan [ ]. I'd imagine that the Pentium 4 blast furnaces have a very detrimental effect on battery wear.

 

Should I only charge my bat. when my laptop is off? I heard if you charge your bat. while running your OS it can decrease your overall bat. life?

ZX5000 - P4 2.8GHz - XP Home -15.4" WXGA (1280x800)- 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200 - 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)- 60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive - DVD/CD-RW Combo - 802.11b/g WLAN - 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - $1,096

 

Mobile Meter tells me that my wear level is %6, the unit is two weeks old. This will need to be watched.

 

Thanks for the program jlyttle. [ ]

ZX5000 - P4 2.8GHz - XP Home -15.4" WXGA (1280x800)- 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200 - 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)- 60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive - DVD/CD-RW Combo - 802.11b/g WLAN - 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - $1,096

 

Just wanted to update everyone on my situation... I just got off the phone with HP tech. support and I told the tech rep. my problem and she is sending me a new battery in 3 bus. days. Hopefully this issue will be resolved and does not re-occur. But the call went smoothly no questions asked... Thumbs up to HP[ .

ZX5000 - P4 2.8GHz - XP Home -15.4" WXGA (1280x800)- 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200 - 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)- 60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive - DVD/CD-RW Combo - 802.11b/g WLAN - 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - $1,096

 

SaID,
Make sure you check your replacement battery with a program like MobileMeter to determine its Wear Level before agreeing to keep it.

My sister thought she should get a replacement battery for her notebook because her notebook is as old as mine. Since my battery needed replacement, she just knew hers needed one too. To make a silly story short, she almost replaced a nine month old original battery with a 0% Wear Level with a brand new replacement battery from hp with a 30% Wear Level!!! She sent the replacement back and kept her original battery.

Jeremy
__________

 

I just received the batt. and I'm using Battery Eater but I'm not sure if I'm using it right. It doesn't finish unless my laptop batt. drains totally?

ZX5000 - P4 2.8GHz - XP Home -15.4" WXGA (1280x800)- 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200 - 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)- 60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive - DVD/CD-RW Combo - 802.11b/g WLAN - 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - $1,096

 

The wear level I believe is at 3% which is def. better then my previous batt. Should I tell HP this or just keep it?

ZX5000 - P4 2.8GHz - XP Home -15.4" WXGA (1280x800)- 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) 9200 - 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)- 60 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive - DVD/CD-RW Combo - 802.11b/g WLAN - 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery - $1,096

 

That is probably within the normal range. Mine is about 4 weeks old and is about %4-5. Just keep an eye on it over the next couple of months.