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    Any free battery diagnostic tool?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by The Biles, Apr 6, 2009.

  1. The Biles

    The Biles Notebook Evangelist

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    I want to measure the health of my battery and check its performance and such. Any freeware program for this?

    I will also accept Linux apps, since I dual-boot with Ubuntu.
     
    The Biles, Apr 6, 2009
    #1
  2. DetlevCM

    DetlevCM Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    DetlevCM, Apr 6, 2009
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  3. dbam987

    dbam987 wicked-poster

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    Battery Bar is a free battery health monitoring tool. Give it a try.

    Edit: Sorry for the cross-post DetLevCM! :p
     
    dbam987, Apr 6, 2009
    #3
  4. The Biles

    The Biles Notebook Evangelist

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    I actually installed Battery Bar, but it suddenly started displaying a horribly wrong time remaining, so I figured it was a piece of crap and uninstalled. Does anyone have any experience with this app?
     
    The Biles, Apr 6, 2009
    #4
  5. ScuderiaConchiglia

    ScuderiaConchiglia NBR Vaio Team Curmudgeon

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    Battery Bar works great for me. It does "learn" the time remaining by keeping stats of the drain over time and then projecting the time remaining. So if you have some unusual power drain event its numbers can go off. But in my experience (about two months of continuous use) it recovers well and is usually quite accurate.

    Gary
     
    ScuderiaConchiglia, Apr 6, 2009
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  6. Jayayess1190

    Jayayess1190 Waiting on Intel Cannonlake

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    You can change it to display the percentage left instead...

    BatteryBar is a great program, especially since the developer actually implemented one of my ideas.
     
    Jayayess1190, Apr 6, 2009
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  7. coolguy

    coolguy Notebook Prophet

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    Time remaining in any Battery App might not be true always. The % of battery remaining is the best way to gauge battery life.
     
    coolguy, Apr 6, 2009
    #7
  8. ScuderiaConchiglia

    ScuderiaConchiglia NBR Vaio Team Curmudgeon

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    Percent is the most accurate, but not necessarily the "best". If I am doing something that is eating a lot of battery power, the percent left doesn't answer my REAL question of how much time do I have left to get this job done before I have to seek out an outlet in an airport. Percent works well if I am just going about some average job of editing a Word file or the like. But if I am editing video or audio percent sucks.

    I like the way Battery Bar approaches this, it monitors the actual current draw and uses that to estimate the remaining time. Unlike the percent values, it's not always 100% accurate, but it does a pretty good job. The only time I have seen it way off is when transitioning from doing something that takes a LOT of battery power to something that doesn't or vice versa.

    Gary
     
    ScuderiaConchiglia, Apr 6, 2009
    #8