Laptop Battery -

[expresso]

I had to change out my laptop battery Again - been a while its been flashing white light in the front - i didnt bother much - and forgot about it - the other night - it started flashing orange - and didnt work without the AC plugged in - i googled and battery needs changing

i ordered another one Amazon - one day shipping- $20 its not original of course - but same one year warranty if it fails - same as dell warranty - but dell wants $100 - i opened it up to install - of course the little screws always one is hard to remove and stripped - didnt put it back

i have to get some next time to replace -

i wanted to show the condition of the battery - this is how these things explode or short out etc, - looks like its leaking on the corner and exposed some - i didnt expect to see that - turns out i ordered the same one again - haha - i dont mind if it lasts a year only - its fine - if i still have the laptop in a year from now

another $20 for another one - its 5 years old the laptop works fine - so no need to replace - dont use much - really charging the chairs when i am there - other times on my desktop with BT

take a look

[Burgerman]

You want to be careful next time. Check it out sooner. Those things really are fireworks if you upset them! Last thing you need is an apartment fire while you sleep. Although this normally happens when old cells are on charge.

[expresso]

yeah i agree - but really how would you know

i had a flashing white light for a time - that i didnt look into i should have - googled it and see what it was

but battery was fine then and charging - no indication that it was failing - i checked the battery status software monitoring from dell - didnt say nothing

orange started the other night - i ordered it yesterday - got it today replaced it

i didnt expect to see that though when opened - what can you do - cant open it every few months to look at it - and what if you did open open - it can be under it - dont they have some sort of short protection or something ?

[Burgerman]

Lithium ion cells have an external BMS which works quite well. Not being lifepo4 etc. But they burn violently if one of 2 things happen.
A. The cells BMS or charge electronics chares above 4.20v per cell. We destroy old hobby packs which behave similarly by charging to 4.3V sometimes a little more. And its spectacular.

B.The cells develop a dendrite internally. A growth between plates like a stalagmite in miniture. Which is an internal short... Nothing saves you from that. They develop it, and it discharges the cell. First clue is a cell that wont stay charged. 2nd clue your laptop bursts into flames if unlucky. And they cant be put out.

[expresso]

should we stop using Laptops ?

nothing anyone can do - you buy it - and use it - hopefully it never happens - almost everyone has one

[Burgerman]

What I do is monitor capacity. Dells software allows this. In bios it also gives a battery condition. If it says excelent, great. If it says good, be looking for a new one.
If it starts to drop capacity noticibly I replace battery. If its 5 or 6 year old, I replace battery.

Fortunately with dells I have I can tell it to only charge to 85% max, and never below 15% or shutdown in windows "power" settings. So they last very very well. So they dont die, dont age, and so safer! You can also configure this in the bios instead. It cost you 30% of the runtime. But this laptop has 2 large batts. And still gives 10 hours normal use.

[expresso]

i can set that also - but i choose to use it on AC power all the time - its right there on my table plugged in -

i will check the status more -

[Burgerman]

So do I. Most of the time. You missed the point. Thats why battery is charged to 80 to 85% only. So it remains fit and healthy and also therfore safe. Then on the odd occasion I take it out to the beach/pub/flying field etc its battery is still healthy.

[expresso]

if i choose custom plan - then its not on AC plan - which it says helps to reduce the threshold - sounds to me as its the best setting if its used on AC power all the time -


it shows plugged in - but not charging because it dosnt need to be -

[Burgerman]

It also shows 100% full!!!
Your battery if kept at 100% will soon die. The reason its not charging is because its full! Dont use their stupidly named AC plan! Use your brain instead. Thats why theres a CUSTOM settings page. Like this https://www.wheelchairdriver.com/board/ ... &mode=view

No lithium batt likes to be kept fully charged. Its like breathing in deeply and holding your breath. You would feel like you were going to explode... So do they. Some actually do explode! This is why you are seeing this https://www.wheelchairdriver.com/board/ ... &mode=view

AC setting allows it to charge to 100% which is great for long useage on battery. But it murders the cells. It attempts to charge full ready for your work day... It can be set or learns. DONT use it.


So:
Set to CUSTOM.
Then set to 80% low, 85% max. Then your batts will be as good as new many years from now. And always be between these two numbers. Ignore the dumb options for ignorant users, they just want to sell more batteries... I use 80 and 85%. You have only 1 batt, so 85 and 90% will give longer use time, slightly less battery longevity.

Set the low end in power settings to hybernate or sleep at 20% and shut down PC at 15%.

[LROBBINS]

WARNING: If you are using a recent version of Win 10 on a recent PC, such as LTSC 2021 and Rachi's HP Spectre x360-14, SLEEP no longer exists . It has been replaced by MODERN SLEEP (there are also a variety of aka for this). Depending on what programs you have open and what devices you have connected - e.g. USB keyboard, wi-fi etc. there may still be a lot of current drain when in modern sleep. On Rachi's new HP convertible, power drain in modern sleep with her communications program active is actually much higher than if the computer is just left on at maximum performance, and there is quite a bit more hot air coming out of the vents. Modern Sleep is one of Microsoft's less brilliant inventions - it's whole purpose is to make a PC act like a smart phone and come instantly alive or wake on kbd or web input rather than having to wait the few seconds needed to come out of traditional sleep. Hibernation does still reduce power consumption to 0, but coming back out of hibernation has gotten slower than it used to be.

As a measure of how bad modern sleep is, a week of modern sleep at night on Rachi's chair drains about 60AHr from her batteries. (It was also what caused the PL8 to never stop charging until 8 hour time out because drain never fell below the 350 mV that it was set for.)

[Burgerman]

I only use hibernate personally, and in bios do not allow USB passthrough power unless on AC.

Oddly hibernate is missing on my desktop PC and it is cloned from my laptop where it works fine. But that is always rebooted from scratch if turne off. Which it seldom is. Just goes dark...


Just checked. I got it backwards. Sleep works fine, on laptop as USBs also shut down, set in bios, but hybernate is missing! And on Desktop PC.

[Burgerman]

https://appuals.com/disable-modern-standby-windows/

Seems that you can dump modern sleep and go back to S3 sleep easily enough?


I remember now I turned off hybernation to defrag a drive. This in a elevated command prompt turns it on/off

Code: Select all

powercfg /hibernate on

[expresso]

in windows i have the power saver mode -

on the dell software - i put it to 80 to start charging and 90 to stop charging


if that works - who knows - i always have it plugged in when i use it - AC power - very few times i use it without AC power -

[LROBBINS]

Good find this - https://appuals.com/disable-modern-standby-windows/ - thanks.

BTW, to enable the kbd when in tablet config (as it is when on the WC) I had to disactivate Intel Integrated Sensor xxx (stops mems accel/gyro from blocking keyboard as you fold the PC) and add some tin-can steel to block the magnetic sensor that holds the kbd off in case the computer is moved. Then I've been using the power key (there's no power switch) to go in and out of hibernate - but maybe I'll go to old-fashioned sleep instead. There's still an inclinometer that prevents the power key from exiting hibernation if the screen is tilted.

[Burgerman]

in windows i have the power saver mode -

on the dell software - i put it to 80 to start charging and 90 to stop charging


if that works - who knows - i always have it plugged in when i use it - AC power - very few times i use it without AC power -

Who knows? I do...
So you never want battery full then do you... That just causes a short life.
So set to 80/85 like mine and your battery will always be between these two numbers. Obviously you need to use about 20% or more of the battery to make it drop. Then it will charge to 85 or in your case 90% and stop charging.

[expresso]

i have it set to now to start charging at or below 80% and stop charging at 85%

thats it - but i always use it with the AC power on - without it - screen too dim no matter how bright i set it - and also a bit more sluggish

maybe its because of the power saving mode in windows power settings ?

i believe i had it at performance before - used more more i am sure but felt better to use - i believe - i will put it back to performance mode in windows and leave it at 80 - 85

the unit is 5 years old - for what i use it for - its fine - but the next one - i want more speed mines also seems to get hot quicker - i hear the fan kick in often maybe i should get one of those fans to sit under it to cool it -

[martin007]

Cheap ends up being expensive...

[Burgerman]

thats it - but i always use it with the AC power on - without it - screen too dim no matter how bright i set it - and also a bit more sluggish

Then use the SETTINGS that allow you to fine tune how it behaves. The screen brightness DEFAULTS are in the BIOS. And theres no reason to have the screen dimmer uness YOU decide on this.

BALANCED (all) fo e.g has settings a mile long for how it behaves on battery and on AC. Screen brightness can be at 100 percent, CPU power can be at 100 percent on battery or AC, its a co puter and YOU are the one meant to be driving it and configuring it to suit your own usage. The reason they say "balanced" is because someone else guessed what you might want... Its for dummies.

maybe its because of the power saving mode in windows power settings ?

There are 3 default powe settings. All of these can be configured in at least 100 ways on both AC and battery... It seems you didnt bother!
Or you can create a 4th, 5th etc to use for different purposes.

i believe i had it at performance before - used more more i am sure but felt better to use - i believe - i will put it back to performance mode in windows and leave it at 80 - 85

No go through all the advanced settings and CONFIGURE THEM to make the thing work properly without wasting power... The battery config is just 1 thing to configure.

You can set the screen brightness with shortcut keys, and default settings in BIOS, and in windows. For AC and for BATTERY. Theres no reason it will be darker on battery unless you fauled to configure it. And you can do it in dells software or windows too...

As for CPU power etc then its configured BY YOU in the power settings... On AC and on Battery...
As is the point where your PC sleeps, shuts down, or hybernates on AC or Battery. YOU DECIDE.

You know when I say you dont drive your computers and never configure anything, this is 1% of what I mean. Then you keep on restoring them back to an earlier state! I fine tune this stuff year on year. And notJUST this stuff. So a backup or a fresh install is the worst of all worlds.

[expresso]

i did see those extra fine tuning settings - and yes i didnt bother

i left those alone at the moment -

i will revisit it when i have more time to look at each setting

[Burgerman]

It will get hot if you have it configured badly. It wil be slow if you have it configured badly. And you have no idea how its configured. Some of this is in the bios. Some is in the power saving settings, some is in dells software, some is in windows.

If you CORRECTLY configure it your computer is fast when needed, hot only if you start edditing 4k movies, uses little power but has 100% performance WHEN REQUIRED only. So not sluggish.

It should idle in windows at 1% or less. That allows it to go to its lowest power consumption/heat state. And it should boost to max frequency instantly as you do anything. Best of both worlds, stays cool, and super fast as required. As it comes, stock settings, stock bios settings, stock power settings, badly set up windows, non of that happens... No matter if its a 3k laptop bought yesterday or a 10 year old one.

[steves1977uk]

Here's a batch and executable to configure the hidden advanced power settings in Windows.

Steve

[Burgerman]

You will break expresso. He hasnt bothered to figure out stock opions yet!

[steves1977uk]

Yeah, true BM! Expresso doesn't delve deep into stuff like me and you do, then wonders why it's not running optimally.

Steve

[Burgerman]

Expresso, dont run that because it will give you 100 power and CPU settings that I dont understand!