[Q] Battery capacity decreasing rapidly

[frantisek.nesveda]

Hi,
I know the battery life in OS X was never very good on the Probook line, but I am afraid OS X is also somehow destroying the battery.

Recently I found out that I can only squeeze out around 1 hour of life from the battery and then the laptop dies without warning, and just a moment before dying it was showing circa 30% charge remaining in the menu bar. In Windows 7 / 8 the situation was the same, regardless any brightness settings or wifi on/off etc. So I started investigating and tried to put a new battery from another, month old Probook to my Probook, and suddenly the battery life was OK, at 2,5 hours, and the laptop died when it should, at 0% of battery remaining.

When you open System Information, you can see the full charge capacity of the battery in mAh. The original capacity of the battery should be around 4400 mAh, which corresponds with what I have seen with the new battery in my Probook. When I put there the one which drained in a hour, it showed only 2300 mAh. I thought that the battery just degraded with its lifetime, because I used the laptop quite heavily. But when I looked after next two days, the capacity was only 1800 mAh.

I don't think the battery should degrade more than 10% in two days, that seems just wrong.

So I asked some people with a Probook who never installed OS X and had just Windows 7 on it. Virtually all of them said that when their laptop was new, they had a battery life of 5-6 hours, and after a year they still have a battery life of 4-5 hours, which is quite impressive and truly doesn't correspond with my experience.

I wanted to ask, does anyone of you have the same problem, or better, could you post your full charge capacity, which you see in System Information, along with some info about how long can your Probook last on battery in OS X / Windows, and how long do you own and use it?

Thanks in advance,
František Nesveda

 

[frantisek.nesveda]

Battery capacity gets depleted slowly but surely through the time but I doubt an OS can have any significant impact on it. It's just the way batteries work, I guess. It could be a faulty battery in your case, if you still have warranty then I'd contact HP about it.

I've still got about 3/4 of a year of my warranty left, so I'll be trying to make a claim...

When I try to remember when did the battery life decrease so dramatically I think it happened after one time when I drained the battery completely, about a month ago. Interestingly, few days later the BIOS update F.29 came out, which should solve an issue when the battery would not charge properly if drained fully... so I installed it back then and it didn't solve anything.

I'm thinking about buying myself a 9-cell battery, but in the Czech Republic there are no stores which would offer it, so I guess I have to buy it via eBay.

 

[riodoro1]

Mine, only OS X 10.8.2, on a battery for at least 4 hours a day in school, been a hackbook for about half a year now, laptop is about a year old.

Charge Information:
  The battery's charge is below the critical level.:	No
  The battery's charge is below the warning level.:	No
  Charge Remaining (mAh):	                        3781
  Fully Charged:	                                Yes
  Charging:	                                        No
  Full Charge Capacity (mAh):	                        3781

And i can get 2:20 of battery time with lowest brightness and not too much apps running.

I'm thinking about buying myself a 9-cell battery, but in the Czech Republic there are no stores which would offer it, so I guess I have to buy it via eBay.

As soon as You get it write on forum how much time can You get from one.

 

[xtookahx]

I've still got about 3/4 of a year of my warranty left, so I'll be trying to make a claim...

When I try to remember when did the battery life decrease so dramatically I think it happened after one time when I drained the battery completely, about a month ago. Interestingly, few days later the BIOS update F.29 came out, which should solve an issue when the battery would not charge properly if drained fully... so I installed it back then and it didn't solve anything.

I'm thinking about buying myself a 9-cell battery, but in the Czech Republic there are no stores which would offer it, so I guess I have to buy it via eBay.

Yeah I wanted to buy a 9cell battery too but if I get same performance it would be a waste .... so please give us a feedback of your battery when you buy it ...



Thanks

 

[metacollin]

Yeah I wanted to buy a 9cell battery too but if I get same performance it would be a waste .... so please give us a feedback of your battery when you buy it ...



Thanks

I have a 9 cell battery, after a little over 100 cycles, the capacity measures at ~8400mah (or roughly double what the stock battery provides). Performance wise, it lasts more than twice as long as my stock battery, and will probably maintain more capacity for a longer amount of time over its charge/discharge cycle life. It is a 90Whr battery as opposed to the stock 45Whr, achieved by using high-capacity cells as well as 3 more of them (obviously hehe). This is important, because battery life really comes down to one thing: how they're treated. Heavy discharge will kill any rechargeable much quicker than light discharging, and in a 9 cell battery, the discharge current is split between 3 sets of cells instead of 2. The cells are also slightly bigger (in capacity, not in size) so even if the discharge rate per cell was the same as the 6 cell battery, that discharge would be a smaller percentage of the cells total capacity, and thus 'lighter'.

Uh, I think that was a really crappy explanation, but all I can say is 9-cell batteries have a longer lifetime and higher useful cycle count simply because each cell gets treated a lot nicer. I highly recommend investing in one if you plan on using a laptop for more than a year or so, its cheaper in the long run. And your laptop runs twice as long which is nice.

 

[metacollin]

Also, make sure you trust the company selling the batteries to build adequate protection circuitry. Lthium Ion cells with faulty/inadequate protection circuity don't die quietly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC0UWIYswKI

 

[eelhead]

I would try to warranty the battery first if there is still one on it, as a normal running OS is not going to kill your battery like that.
There might be something wrong with it or damaged some how. Have you taken it out and checked the pins on it and the laptop to make sure there ins't any dirt or the like on either part?

 

[metacollin]

I would try to warranty the battery first if there is still one on it, as a normal running OS is not going to kill your battery like that.
There might be something wrong with it or damaged some how. Have you taken it out and checked the pins on it and the laptop to make sure there ins't any dirt or the like on either part?

I would definitely go with what eelhead said. I meant my post mostly as a general review of 9 cell batteries since a couple people asked. HP should give you a free new replacement however, as your battery has lost more capacity than it should have for the cycle count.

As for the size, the 9 cell has a little 'leg' that sticks out: http://metacollin.com/screens/upshot_A8OPXhzz.png