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Calibrating a new laptop battery. How to restore your laptop battery yourself

    • On modern stage portable devices in the form of laptops are gradually replacing large desktop computers. Their main advantage is that they can be easily moved from place to place without being connected to the network: all good laptops are equipped with high-capacity batteries. However, sooner or later the time comes when the battery runs out, the battery loses capacity, and the laptop risks turning into a gadget completely dependent on the power supply. New models of laptop computers are constantly appearing on sale, and finding new batteries for older laptops is becoming increasingly problematic. Therefore, there is an optimal way out: restoring the laptop battery.

    However, before analyzing the algorithm of actions necessary in order to implement it, it will not be amiss to understand how to prevent their premature failure.

    Extending battery life using a special program

    There is a special program for BatteryCare laptops, designed to control the processes occurring in the device. Of course, it is impossible to prevent a natural decrease in their capacity, but it is quite possible to control the consumption of the battery’s electrical potential. This program was created so that the user can get full information about the battery. She spends detailed analysis running processes and stops in time those that are characterized by the highest energy consumption for the battery.

    The program is remarkable in that it displays complete information about the condition of the battery. It not only shows the battery charge level, but also records the percentage of its wear and capacity. If the battery controller fails, you can use the program.

    The BatteryCare program also monitors the charge-discharge cycles of the laptop battery, records its discharge in cycles and, upon reaching a certain number of cycles, notifies that a complete discharge is necessary. This prevents premature deterioration of the battery's potential and the need to repair it prematurely.

    Restoring an Asus laptop battery

    Opening the case: be careful

    In order to repair an Asus laptop battery, you will need a breadboard knife (or screwdriver), a multimeter, a soldering iron, a small car light bulb and cyanoacrylate glue.

    Opening the battery compartment

    Often similar PCs have cheaper made in China It can be difficult to remove batteries from the plastic box in which they are packaged. The main thing is not to damage the fragile contents of the battery pack with a screwdriver. To open the case, you need to find a seam on it that divides it into two halves glued together. Carefully separate them and open the battery. The halves are often glued together very firmly, so you have to tinker with them quite a bit.

    Usually inside there are six standard “cans” and a board with a fuse (controller). On Asus models, the wiring that connects the controller to the battery pack is very thin, and the board itself is often not secured properly. This requires extra care when handling it.

    Important point: resetting controller data

    Before restoring the battery pack itself, it is important to reset the battery voltmeter (or controller) to zero. This is a special tester inside the battery that regulates the charging process and, when the voltage in the “banks” reaches 4.2 V (the maximum allowable value), the controller gives a signal that the battery is fully charged. However, over time, the controller may become confused and give inaccurate readings. Therefore, it should be adjusted by updating the indicators to zero.

    Restoring the battery

    Now you can start restoring the laptop battery itself.

    The battery must be completely discharged before the recovery process.
    Then, using a multimeter, the voltage at the terminals of each “can” is measured sequentially. All batteries whose output voltage during measurements was less than 3.7 V are discarded and replaced with new ones that are similar in essence.

    Advantages of this method for beginners

    In principle, this is one of the most simple ways restore the battery, which can be applied not only to an Asus laptop, but also to any other model, taking into account its specifics. This repair is quite simple and does not require deep skills. More complex methods that allow you to restore a laptop battery require the use of specialized chargers and are used mainly in workshops that repair battery packs. For an independent attempt to bring the battery into working condition, it is the method of replacing the batteries and monitoring the voltage using light bulbs and a multimeter that is more suitable.

    Features of Samsung batteries

    As you know, Samsung has long specialized in the manufacture of lighter gadgets in the form of tablets and smartphones. Full-fledged Samsung laptops are now practically not found on sale and are becoming a kind of rarity, along with their batteries. Therefore, restoring the functionality of such a laptop with your own hands can be a real salvation for it.

    You can try to restore the battery from Samsung using the same algorithm. It should be borne in mind that disassembling an old battery pack from this company may be even more difficult than any other. The case of such batteries was often made of very thin plastic, which, unfortunately, can be easily damaged with a screwdriver if opened carelessly. Battery cases from small Samsung netbooks are especially fragile. P Therefore, you should not use a sharpened screwdriver when opening the case or removing batteries from the compartment.

    An additional obstacle for Samsung may be the detachment of batteries from the case due to the fact that when attaching them they used very strong silicone glue, which over time could turn into an almost solid mass. But if you work patiently, it is possible to disassemble such a block without causing serious harm to it.

    Thus, implement self-recovery battery is quite possible. It is important to carry out all manipulations in a well-ventilated area, because processes such as soldering and gluing involve human inhalation of harmful chemical substances. If someone is going to make their first experiment in bringing an old battery back to life, for the first time it is better to take the battery pack on which you can practice, without regretting in the future that it was accidentally “killed” due to inexperience.

    Calibrating a laptop battery allows you to correct controller errors in which the actual battery capacity does not match the values ​​​​determined by the system. As a result of this failure, the operating time battery life laptop is significantly reduced, which causes inconvenience to users.

    When to do it

    Let's consider specific example: actual battery charge is 70%. Due to improper operation of the controller, the system displays a 40% charge. When the system sees that the charge has dropped to 10%, the laptop will be sent to sleep mode. However, the actual battery capacity will not be 10%, but 40%, which means you could use the laptop offline for another hour.
    To fix this error, you need to calibrate the battery. This procedure also helps to get rid of the “memory” effect, in which the battery “remembers” the charge level when the laptop is connected to the network, and subsequently releases energy to this limit, that is, the battery capacity is not fully used.

    The "memory" effect occurs in nickel-cadmium (NiCd) and nickel-metal hydride (NiMH) batteries; there is no such problem in lithium-ion batteries.

    Determining battery capacity

    Before calibrating the battery, check whether the battery requires such measures at all. This can be done using the command line:

    If the last full charge is much lower than the maximum capacity, then you need to calibrate the battery. Recalibration will help eliminate a failure in the laptop battery controller. It is important to understand: the battery will not be restored to its original state, you will only eliminate the error due to which the battery capacity is incorrectly determined.

    Automatic calibration

    There are several ways to calibrate using special programs on different laptops.

    Energy Management

    Lenovo laptops have a special utility that allows you to calibrate the battery meter. All Lenovo Idea laptops are equipped with Energy Management software, which allows you to manage power supply.

    The calibration process will take quite a long time - the battery will first be charged and then completely discharged. You cannot interrupt the operation, and it is also not recommended to use a computer.

    Phoenix BIOS

    Programs of this kind are also available on other laptops. HP laptops are equipped with a utility that allows you to check the condition of the battery and, if necessary, calibrate it, correcting the error in determining the charge level.

    On some laptop models, a calibration program is built into the BIOS. Let's see how to calibrate the battery using the Phoenix BIOS as an example:


    It is important that the power adapter is disconnected when performing the battery setup procedure. Otherwise, when you launch the utility in the BIOS, you will see a warning.

    If you don’t find built-in calibration tools, you can download a universal program for all laptop models - BatteryCare, Battery Eater, etc. However, it is better to use standard tools, avoiding third-party software.

    Manual calibration

    If you do not have a program on your laptop that allows you to do calibration, and there is no way to download a universal utility, then you can perform the procedure for correcting the controller error manually. You can calibrate the battery in three steps:

    1. Charge the battery to maximum.
    2. Discharge it completely.
    3. Charge again to 100%.

    The problem is that as soon as you unplug your laptop, its power plan will change. Once a certain low charge level is reached, the laptop will go into sleep mode, meaning it will not be able to completely discharge. Let's fix this shortcoming:


    The plan you created will be selected automatically.

    Another option is to log in and wait for the battery to drain. Almost all laptops do not have charge control in the BIOS, so the laptop will not be able to turn off on its own until the battery runs out.

    To do the calibration, use the laptop until it turns off due to a completely discharged battery (power adapter is disconnected, the device is running on battery power only). Next, you should connect it to the network as soon as possible - it is harmful for the battery to remain in a discharged state for a long time.

    After completing these steps, the controller failure will be resolved. Calibrating a laptop battery does not increase battery life - it is impossible to restore the physical wear of the battery using software methods. But the battery capacity will be determined correctly, which will allow you to use the available charge as efficiently as possible.

    Some laptop manufacturers create a battery calibration program specifically for their inventions.

    Here I offer two options for calibrating the battery of any laptop: asus, acer, msi, aspire, dell latitude, hp, msi, lenovo, batterymark, sony vaio, toshiba satellite, samsung, packard bell and so on. This is manual and automatic - using programs.

    Why is calibration needed? It is needed if you notice incorrect displays in the indicator - over time, any laptop can come to this state.

    Unfortunately, each battery has a lifespan and a certain number of charge/discharge cycles.

    Calibrating the battery will not restore maximum factory power. is a natural process.

    How to calibrate a laptop battery on Windows 7 - Windows 10

    On Windows 7 - Windows 10, you can perform this operation using programs (if provided by the manufacturer) and manually.

    If you use the manual option, then connect the charger and charge the laptop battery one hundred percent (to the maximum).

    Then disconnect the laptop from the network and discharge the battery completely to “0” in any way.

    Programs for calibrating laptop batteries

    When using programs, please note that the same program will not be suitable for calibrating the battery of all laptops.

    Thus, calibration in ASUS is carried out through the BIOS. Enter it and open the BOOT tab, and there find “Smart Battery Calibration” and start the process.

    NOTE: sometimes this item may be located on other menu tabs and the name may differ, but the word Battery is always there.


    For Samsung and Acer, the BatteryMark program is suitable, and for Lenovo, the Energy Management utility. For HP laptops, use the HP Support Assistant.

    ATTENTION: if you do not use the battery, then charge it to 60-70 percent and you can take it out for three months. Good luck.

    Over time, the capacity of the laptop battery decreases and you have to install a different power source. But if you know how to calibrate your laptop battery, you can extend its service life. The chemical processes will not stop due to calibration, but the charge level will be displayed correctly, which also matters.

    Why is calibration needed?

    In the system settings, a discharge limit value is usually set, upon reaching which the laptop goes into sleep mode - 10%. When the system sees that the charge is 10%, it will turn off the laptop. In this case, the actual charge can be much higher (30-40%).

    The controller incorrectly determines the battery volume and believes that it is on its last legs.

    To eliminate this drawback, it is necessary to calibrate the battery several times a year, that is, remind the controller of the real maximum and minimum charge level. To accurately determine whether calibration is necessary, use the built-in battery health diagnostic tool:

    1. Open command line with admin rights.
    2. Run the command “powercfg.exe -energy -output C:noutbook.html”.

    The value “С:notebook.html” determines where the diagnostic report will be saved. IN in this case a text file named notebook.html will be sent to the root of drive C. You can specify a different name and save location.

    Once the diagnostics are complete, go to the C drive and open the report. It is executed as an HTML file, so its contents can be viewed through any browser. You need to find the "Battery Information" field, which contains the battery code, manufacturer, chemical composition, number of discharge-charge cycles, calculated capacity, last charge and other parameters.

    To determine if your battery needs calibration, compare the estimated capacity to the last full charge. If the readings differ significantly (by more than 15%), then the battery must be calibrated. You will not be able to make the last charge equal to the calculated capacity for the old battery - current chemical processes cannot be reversed, the battery capacity is constantly decreasing. Calibration is needed so that you see the real charge level, no matter how small it may be.

    Automatic and manual calibration

    The calibration procedure takes several hours, during which you will not be able to use the laptop, so it is better to leave the laptop overnight. Most often, you can calibrate the battery using the built-in utility that the manufacturer preinstalls on the laptop. For example, on Lenovo laptops you will find an Energy Management utility for battery management. How to work with it:

    During the calibration process, the laptop will be fully charged, then discharged to zero and charged again to 100%. At this time, you cannot run other programs, turn off the laptop or close its lid, sending it to sleep or hibernation.

    If there is no calibration application on the system, try universal utilities such as BatteryCare or Battery Eater. They work on the same principle, discharging and charging the battery.

    On some laptops, a calibration utility is built into the BIOS. For example, on HP laptops with Phoenix BIOS, the application is called Smart Battery Calibration. You can find it on the “Boot” tab.

    The location of the utility may vary depending on the laptop manufacturer and BIOS version, so it is recommended that you carefully study the manual for your laptop model to make sure that you even have the necessary software.

    Manual calibration

    The calibration procedure involves completely discharging the battery and then charging it to 100%. You can perform these manipulations without programs. It is enough to solve one problem - the laptop goes into sleep mode when it reaches a certain low level charge. For this:


    The created meal plan will be selected automatically. Now your task is to completely discharge the battery until the laptop shuts down from lack of power. After turning off, connect the laptop to an electrical outlet and wait until the battery is 100% charged. Calibration is completed, now the system will show the real charge level, which will allow you to use the available battery capacity more efficiently.

    Battery calibration- This is an important step for portable laptop users who monitor the condition of their devices.

    Due to the way it functions, this moment, they need periodic adjustment before use so that the current charge is correctly detected

    Contents:

    When is the setup done?

    The procedure is required to be performed on new devices, which will give the user up-to-date information about the battery status.

    The procedure will not eliminate physical wear and defects in the structure of batteries, but it may increase the battery life. At a certain charge level, usually 30%, the device goes into standby mode.

    And if the controller shows that there is 30% of it left (and in reality this value is higher) and transfers it to , then the current state of the capacity will be displayed.

    Newer nickel-based cells exhibit what is called a “memory effect.”

    It seems to remember the charge level when there is power from the mains and does not discharge below this value, considering that this level corresponds to a complete discharge.

    Determining the battery capacity of a laptop computer

    Before calibrating the battery, you should make sure that the operation is necessary, especially if there are no problems in determining the amount of charge.

    1. We launch it with administrator privileges, for example, by entering “cmd” in the “Run” window (Win + R) or through search in Windows 10.
    1. We execute the code in it "powercfg.exe -energy –output disk:\path\filename.html".

    1. We are waiting for the operation to complete (indicated by the closing of the window).
    2. We go to the specified directory and open the one created in the .

    To do this, you will need a browser, and the functionality of IE or the built-in “ten” is quite sufficient.

    1. We look through the report and find the capacity calculated by the controller and its value after the last full charge.

    Calibration is carried out when the peak capacity of the battery is tens or more percent higher than the actual capacity obtained as a result of its last charge.

    Battery tuning techniques

    There are two ways to make the controller work correctly:

    Manual setting

    It is completed in three simple steps and does not require any third-party software.

    1 Charge up to maximum value at 100%.

    2 Disconnect the cable from the network and wait until its charge drops to zero.

    3 Connecting again(as soon as possible) and charge to maximum.

    It seems simple, but there is one nuance: when reducing to a certain level(about 30%) is put into sleep mode, and therefore it will not be possible to achieve the desired effect in this way.

    The following chain of actions will help to avoid such a situation (relevant for any Windows):

    • Calling the applet Power supply .

    This is done through a search in Windows 10 or the control panel when its elements are visualized in the form of large icons.

    • Click on the menu on the left "Create a power plan".

    Here you can: current plan edit and create a new one. Let's take the second route, so as not to distort the standard settings of standard plans.

    • We create new scheme power supply, set its name and set high performance.

    Entering a name and plan for the diagram

    Afterwards the scheme will be automatically activated.

    If it suits you, after charging and disconnecting from the network, you can restart and wait for the device to turn off by entering the BIOS menu, but you will have to wait longer, because the processor load in this case is minimal.

    Automatic setup

    Many developers ship their laptops with power management utilities. , for example, come with an Energy Management utility.

    1. Launch the software and click on the icon with the image of a gear to start the process.

    1. Click “Start”, closing all third-party programs.
    2. We connect the power cord to the network if it is not connected, and click “Continue”.

    The battery will charge, discharge to zero and be charged again. There is no need to remove and connect the cable, and interrupting the process is strictly not recommended, nor is it recommended to use the device.

    Only in this case is success guaranteed.

    BIOS

    Those laptops that use the Phoenix BIOS I/O system have an integrated test and calibration function.

    Advice! It is important that during the calibration process the battery is fully charged and the laptop is unplugged, otherwise an error will be displayed.

    Third party software

    If you don’t have the desire/opportunity to perform manipulations in , download applications like Battery Care or Battery Eater or Battery Mark if there is no standard software to solve the problem.

    The last program, after charging, loads the CPU with the task of calculating the infinite value of Pi.

    The utility will additionally allow you to conduct comprehensive testing of the battery both during and in the event of its downtime.

    A special algorithm will allow you to perform a couple of discharge-charge cycles for about an hour (the time depends on the capacity and degree of wear).

    Hewlett-Packard ships laptops with HP Support Assistant.

    The “My Computer” subsection contains tools for testing and debugging a laptop PC.