On 1/15/2009 11:44:00 PM, FranksJacket wrote:
> I have Toshiba Portege M205-s810 with XP Tablet edition sp2 running on it.
> The computer is several years old and I still use the original battery. I
> bought the computer in 2004. I know that the battery is not what is was
> and its overall life has diminished. I get approximately 0:40 use out of
> it with the Toshiba power saver settings. I am fine with this as I do not
> want or need to shell out $100+ for a new battery.
>
> The problem I am having is that the XP Power Meter is reading incorrectly.
> After a full charge, it reads 100%. 0:06 later it reads 95% and so forth.
> It stays like this for 0:40 (65%) till it suddenly changes to 1% and
> hibernates. Why would it do that and can I fix this?
>

I don't have my Toshiba anymore to check, but does the Toshiba power utils
have any kind of a battery reset option? The Lenovos do and I've had this fix
some battery gauge issues on an old X41 I used to have. I just don't recall
offhand if there's anything similar on the Toshiba unit. If it is just a
matter of the windows monitoring being incorrect, what happens when you tell
Windows to NOT suspend or disable when the battery reaches a certain
percentage? Will the unit keep working? Since that would at least determine
if it is simply a matter of Windows misinterpreting the status of the
battery, or the battery just being old enough that it is getting
inconsistent. If it will still run 40 minutes with all of the windows power
settings disabled for suspending or hibernating when battery is low, then it
may be worthwhile to try removing and reinstalling the Toshiba power
application (if they have one) to see if it will make a difference. And if
Toshiba has a battery monitor tray icon of its own, does it show "correct"
while the windows default one shows wrong?


--
John