Laptop battery question

angel-girl · 01-26-2008, 06:15 AM

I just bought a brand new HP laptop about 14 hours ago. It's beautiful. Anyway, it's replacing an old Toshiba Satellite, which I've had for about two years and have had no end of problems with. One of the problems I had was that the original battery died when I pulled it out to replace a broken LCD. I bought a new one and was told "It doesn't have any memory, this battery, don't even have to break it in." Well, within a month of buying it, the battery began showing off its memory and now it only lasts about five minutes. (I bought it in November and I'm planning on sending it back to the manufacturer so I can sell the computer with a decent battery.) Anyway, I Googled to find out if I do need to break in this battery, and found nothing. The only article I found at all was one dated 2005, which told me that laptop batteries do need to be fully charged and fully discharged 3-4 times before allowed to resume normal activity. Is this still true? I figure it can't hurt, so right now I'm running on battery power, having let it charge all night, but I thought I'd ask the smart folks.

Thanks,
Sarah

**sobeit** · 01-27-2008, 03:31 AM

exactly which hp laptop did you get. Normally you do not have to do anything to break in your battery just need to charge it for the recommend period of time.

You may have the calibration feature - it would be in the control panel under I think power options.

Personally I have two hp laptops and I will let them completely drain about every couple of weeks since I leave them plugged in most of the time.

angel-girl · 01-27-2008, 04:50 PM

I got a dv6775us. I went to HP's online tech support, but I didn't trust the responses they gave, because it was pretty clear that the tech's first language wasn't English, as she kept thinking I was asking how long I was supposed to initially charge it, then how long the battery would last, etc. It was an ultimately frustrating conversation that went just about no where. She did tell me about the calibration feature, but not whether it was a good idea to use it. She also said it was not a good idea to let it drain to nothing. Those were really the only two useful pieces of information I gleaned from about a 45 minute conversation.

01-26-2008, 06:15 AM	#1 (permalink)
angel-girl Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2 OS: Vista	Laptop battery question I just bought a brand new HP laptop about 14 hours ago. It's beautiful. Anyway, it's replacing an old Toshiba Satellite, which I've had for about two years and have had no end of problems with. One of the problems I had was that the original battery died when I pulled it out to replace a broken LCD. I bought a new one and was told "It doesn't have any memory, this battery, don't even have to break it in." Well, within a month of buying it, the battery began showing off its memory and now it only lasts about five minutes. (I bought it in November and I'm planning on sending it back to the manufacturer so I can sell the computer with a decent battery.) Anyway, I Googled to find out if I do need to break in this battery, and found nothing. The only article I found at all was one dated 2005, which told me that laptop batteries do need to be fully charged and fully discharged 3-4 times before allowed to resume normal activity. Is this still true? I figure it can't hurt, so right now I'm running on battery power, having let it charge all night, but I thought I'd ask the smart folks. Thanks, Sarah

01-27-2008, 03:31 AM	#2 (permalink)
sobeit TSF Enthusiast Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: NEAR Posts: 7,433 OS: windows/linux	Re: Laptop battery question exactly which hp laptop did you get. Normally you do not have to do anything to break in your battery just need to charge it for the recommend period of time. You may have the calibration feature - it would be in the control panel under I think power options. Personally I have two hp laptops and I will let them completely drain about every couple of weeks since I leave them plugged in most of the time. __________________ there's been global warming since the ice age

01-27-2008, 04:50 PM	#3 (permalink)
angel-girl Registered User Join Date: Jan 2008 Posts: 2 OS: Vista	Re: Laptop battery question I got a dv6775us. I went to HP's online tech support, but I didn't trust the responses they gave, because it was pretty clear that the tech's first language wasn't English, as she kept thinking I was asking how long I was supposed to initially charge it, then how long the battery would last, etc. It was an ultimately frustrating conversation that went just about no where. She did tell me about the calibration feature, but not whether it was a good idea to use it. She also said it was not a good idea to let it drain to nothing. Those were really the only two useful pieces of information I gleaned from about a 45 minute conversation.