Samsung 7 series short battery life problem :(

Hello guys,

I have had this laptop for almost year (15 inch matte display). It is a really good machine and I am very happy with that. However past few months I noticed that my battery life got much shorter then before. I remember when I bough this laptop it lasted about 7-8 hours. But now it lasts only for about 2.5 hours. Do you think I should replace the battery or maybe something is wrong with my settings?

Thank you

 

First we should confirm whether the battery has lost capacity. Run HWiNFO and check the battery properties. How does the current capacity compare with the design capacity? HWiNFO also expresses loss of capacity as "wear".

The next step would be to run a battery calibration. Run the computer on battery until it stops. Then plug in the PSU, go into the BIOS (press F2 at the BIOS screen) and find the battery calibration option. Unplug the PSU and run the calibration, which fully discharges the battery. Then plug in the PSU and do a full charge. If you have Battery Life Extender selected in Easy Settings then disable it to enable the 100% charge. After the calibration recheck the battery info in HWiNFO.

Premature battery wear is a known issue with the NP900X3B (some of us have obtained replacement batteries under warranty) but I haven't read of similar problems with the Series 7.

John

 

Thank you for the answer John. I tried HWinfo. Here is what it showed:

Designed Capacity: 80216 mWh

Full Charged Capacity: 53280 mWh

Wear Level: 33.6 %


So is it bad?

 

Losing 1/3rd of the capacity within a year may be a valid reason for requesting a replacement. Is your computer the Z5A or the Z5C (or another model)? Samsung claimed here that the Z5C's battery would still have 80% of capacity after 3 years. Your battery is now below 70% after less than one year.

However, first run the calibration before you contact Samsung (so you can tell them that you have already done the calibration). Sometimes the calibration will reduce the reported wear and sometimes it increases.

John

 

Thank you. I tried the calibration in bios, but it is just stucked in 0% and does not do anything in status bar

 

Leave it running in the battery calibration until the computer goes off. If it stays for 0% for a significant period of time then that shows that the battery was out of calibration - there is charge remaining when the battery's chip indicated that the battery should be empty. Then afterwards do a full charge to 100%.

John

 

Do I get you right that in order to have the battery calibrated the calibration process solely needs to know when the battery is fully discharged?

In other words the calibration process doesn't need a bigger discharging sample or even monitor a complete discharge from 100 to 0?

It was late last night and I did that while running the calibration process once again until it reached 100%. Is the calibration messed up now?

 

@oled: Are you saying you ran the calibration while it was plugged in and charging?

I would just run it again, if I were you. Do unplug this time

As for your other question: Consensus seems to be that you can use the PC first, and only use calibration (in BIOS) to deplete the last bit of battery juice. I have deliberately chosen to run my calibration cycles all the way from 100% -- exactly for the reason you mentioned: In case it collects samples across the entire charge spectrum. I have no idea if it makes a difference, but I just never minded leaving the calibration running overnight to fully deplete the battery. Just in case it.

 

I fully charged while running OS --> ran calibration until 0% --> ran calibration until 100%

That whole process took ages. I can't even think of doing even one of those steps again meaning my new precious will be occupied for so long

 

It may not be necessary, I honestly don't know. But if you ever sleep, I am sure your precious won't mind doing a little calibrating while you catch up on your dreams

Edit: Do maximize brightness while it calibrates. You could also disable the CPU Power Saving Mode setting if your BIOS has that. Those should speed up the process.

 

The only useful action of the calibration option in the BIOS is the ability to fully drain the battery. Windows insists on shutting the system down when the battery reports there is several percent remaining. And sometimes the 3% (for example) is actually more because the calibration has drifted. I've watched a computer running the calibration sit at 0% for 5 minutes or more before finally shutting down.

Once the computer / battery chip know where empty actually is, they can work out the rest of the charge info whether or not the computer is on, off or sitting at the calibration option in the BIOS. (That's my theory until someone proves me wrong!)

John