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    Can someone read this W 8.1 battery usage report?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by tonyreali, Jun 28, 2014.

  1. tonyreali

    tonyreali Newbie

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    http://i.imgur.com/zYlCrZv.png

    I'm trying to buy a laptop off Craigslist and I had a person run the battery usage test in Windows 8.1 for me. I have no idea how accurate their test is, but to me it looks like this thing has ~6% wear (53900 mWh out of 57200 mWh) but I can't tell from the "estimated battery life" readings what the actual time should be. The bottom says 4 hours but this thing is supposed to get over 5 hrs battery life and last test a few days ago is showing 6 hours

    Also do those huge gaps in dates how that this thing went weeks or months without being turned on?
     
    tonyreali, Jun 28, 2014
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  2. djembe

    djembe drum while you work

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    You are correct about the roughly 6% battery wear, so the battery will last approximately 6% less than it did initially.

    Actual battery life depends on what you're doing with the system, and so it can vary by quite a bit. The report shows how much remaining time on battery Windows estimated as soon as the computer was unplugged each time the battery had a full charge. The 4 hour figure at the bottom is an average of all those estimates. In my opinion, it's more useful to look at the range of times. For this system, it has been estimated to last between 3-6 hours, with a couple overly high outliers at the beginning. So if you're planning to be using the computer more intensively (higher processor and graphics use and/or high screen brightness), then you can probably expect closer to 3 hours battery life. If you plan to primarily be using productivity software (like Office) and/or web surfing with low to moderate screen brightness, then you can likely expect closer to 6 hours.

    edit: the gap in dates shows that the computer was not used for approximately the last 2-3 weeks, and there are other gaps of 2 weeks last month and a bigger gap between January and April. This probably is related to the owner's decision to sell, either because he or she started using something else or there was something wrong with the system or they just didn't need it and hardly ever used it or some unknown other reason. You'd have to ask the seller.
     
    djembe, Jun 29, 2014
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