Battery charge thresholds?

Hi,

I have set my custom charge thresholds to charge below 60% and to stop charging at 80%, however, the battery monitor/icon says the battery is charged fully at 100%. What's the deal here?

 

It won't discharge it; you have to do that manually, then your settings will kick in.

 

Thanks for the quick reply.

What I did was I let it run down to 10%, turned it off, set the thresholds, then plugged the laptop into the power adaptor, and it ended up fully charging to 100%. Does it automatically charge to 100% if the computer is off?

 

How did you turn if off and then set the thresholds?


It should hold your settings while the computer is off, good question since I just asked it as well http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4206320#post4206320 but I have never actually confirmed it myself. Maybe you didn't save it, or select the correct profile?

 

Sorry, I meant that I set the thresholds first then turned it off. The settings are definitely saved as they were the same after I restarted the computer.

Not sure what's going on here...

 

The battery will never drain when it's plugged in. I thought the same thing too when I first bought my ThinkPad.

With your settings, it will only charge when your battery is under 60%. So for example, your battery has 50%, you plug it in, it will charge to 80% and stop. If you end up unplugging and plugging it back in somewhere between 60-80%, it won't charge because it will only start charging under 60%, hence its description.

Let your battery drain below 60%, plug it in, and then you'll see what I mean.

It's slightly confusing, I know. But it makes sense.

The battery thresholds are always on btw, so even when your battery is below 60% and you turn your computer off, then you go to plug it in, the battery will still charge to 80%.

 

hmmmm, not sure either. try again, maybe it's a fluke? good luck

 

hey i am facing the same problem, i fixed my thresholds as 65 and 95. but it charges up to a full 100%. now if i discharge it to 97%, it wont charge to 100%. also the lower threshold is working perfectly. maybe the upper threshold is not working correctly inside the new power manager.

will the battery be still used when it is plugged in?

 

No the battery does not charge if it is plugged in. It is plugged into AC it wouldn't need to use the battery as the power source.

 

Just a guess. Maybe the battery charges up to the upper threshhold and that is displayed as 100%? If you unplug it does it show 100%?

The battery will drain very slowly even if not used irrespective of its being plugged in or not.

 

Sometimes there's a glitch and you need to unplug AC to set the battery thresholds then plug it back in.

 

yes when i remove the ac it still shows 100%

 

That's because your battery is at 100% charge.

Try this,

Unplug your laptop, set your threshold to something like 86/90, let it drain to 84%, plug it back in and see if it stop charging at 90%.

If it does, then everything is alright. You just had to unplug then set the thresholds.

 

how do you change the threshold on your m1530? does it take aftermarket software?

 

I recommend you post this question in the Dell Forum.

 

I don't even think it's possible

 

can you set these thresholds on ubuntu linux or i always need to boot into windows todo this then reboot into linux?

 

On my T43, I set it to start charging when the level falls below 70% and stop once it charges upto 90%. I noticed that sometimes my battery does not stop charging and goes right upto 100% (and subsequently brings down the full charge capacity each time). Sometimes the threshold settings are still there, other times it is back to default. I find that if I leave put my laptop on standby while it is still charging, the Power Manager settings don't kick in to stop the charging at the 90% level I set.

 

Only Windows can CHANGE THE THRESHOLDS. However, Linux will not adjust these thresholds so as long as you can find a threshold setting you are comfortable with you never need to go back to Windows if you don't want.

 

I don't mean to bring back an old thread but didn't feel like creating a new one either. Is there much difference if I set the threshold of my battery to 30/80 instead of 40/90? I would think the 30/80 would be better since it's more in the middle. I was running it at 40/90 but I'm thinking my cap is still high.

 

I doubt it would make that much of a difference. If any, it'll be negligible. I believe most notebook BIOS's cap the charge at around 96%, so you should be alright either way.

 

Either should be perfectly fine. 30/80 may be slightly better as 40% seems to be the sweetspot for long term storage life. The main thing you want to do is avoid living at the extremes (top and bottom 10%). As long as you do that, just pick a threshold that provides adequate battery life for your daily needs.


Arkit3kt - I think most notebooks (and ThinkPads by default) use a 96% start and 100% start threshold (plug it in at 97% and its idle; plug it in at 94% and it charges up to 100%).