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Battery meter not accurate, does this mean computer will have less power?

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Viper69

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2003
I'm new to laptop ownership. I have an HP E-350 DM1 netbook. Bought it last year, I love it. I haven't used it all that much, a couple of times a month if that.

Now however, the battery meter, while being fully charged will read only 4 hrs of charge time. However, I know the battery gives me 9.5 hrs of charge.

QUESTION: If the meter isn't reading the right amt of time left, will the computer shut off after 4 hrs?? I don't know if the computer's batter meter regulates input of power, or if the meter is off, it won't matter.

How do I get it back to working properly. I've taken the battery out, and that worked for a bit, but a few weeks later, the battery meter is off again.
 
Sounds like ether the batt is going bad or the meter is wrong. DO you know anyone with the same laptop? You could try thers and vis-virsa, SOme batterys just dont last as long as others, Even if they ant being used..
 
You can usually fix issues like that with a full power cycle of the battery. Run it until Windows starts to complain about it, restart into the BIOS and simply leave it there. Once it shuts off, plug in the laptop so it charges the battery.

The laptop might have this option in the BIOS already, so you could check for it.
 
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Oh so like the same thing you do with a cell phone,right? Use it till its completely dead and then do a full charge.
 
Oh so like the same thing you do with a cell phone,right? Use it till its completely dead and then do a full charge.
Yeah, pretty much. There are electronics in the battery that indicate how much life is left. If you only discharge it for short periods, it can get confused and underrate the time.
 
Yeah, pretty much. There are electronics in the battery that indicate how much life is left. If you only discharge it for short periods, it can get confused and underrate the time.


That's what I do. The battery gets used at most a 3 hours at a time. I do know however the battery isn't bad into in terms of maintaining charge because recently the battery meter reported 8-9.5 hrs at full charge. So the battery is good it seems, just the meter isn't working.

If the battery is fully charged but the meter is sensing 4 hrs, will the computer turn off after 4 hrs though?

I'll recalibrate the netbook, thanks for the advice.
 
It will turn off when you have Windows configured to. What would likely happen is as you used the laptop, the time wouldn't change at a certain point.
 
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