I have a Compaq M2000 laptop, about 3 years old.

The battery lasts more than an hour, but, the power meter will show
critical level within 10 mins of running. I have tried the most common
recalibration technique - complete discharge and complete recharge -
many times, but there has been no change in this behaviour. I would
have let it pass, but the biggest problem is that once the power meter
indicates critical level (and the battery LED on the laptop begins to
flash), the system will not boot, unless plugged in. Once the system
boots, the power can be unplugged, and the system will continue
normally for close to an hour on the battery.

Any ideas?

In
news:22bfb97d-dc34-4fa2-a50c-e001ccae9624@v25g2000yqk.googlegroups.com,
htnakirs typed on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 10:54:49 -0700 (PDT):
> I have a Compaq M2000 laptop, about 3 years old.
>
> The battery lasts more than an hour, but, the power meter will show
> critical level within 10 mins of running. I have tried the most common
> recalibration technique - complete discharge and complete recharge -
> many times, but there has been no change in this behaviour. I would
> have let it pass, but the biggest problem is that once the power meter
> indicates critical level (and the battery LED on the laptop begins to
> flash), the system will not boot, unless plugged in. Once the system
> boots, the power can be unplugged, and the system will continue
> normally for close to an hour on the battery.
>
> Any ideas?

1) Battery is 3 years old

2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7

3) Laptop will only run 10 minutes on battery and shutdown

If the answer is yes to all in the above, regardless of the power meter
reading, your battery is shot. As batteries deteriorate overtime from
the heat of the laptop. And power calibration usually relies on the
voltage of the battery, not the internal resistance which deteriorates.

Laptops consume 20 or more watts of power from the battery. This is a
few amperes of current. And a lithium battery with high internal
resistance will only function for a short period of time or none at all.
The battery should function for much more of the capacity if the current
draw is lessened. Although not much you can do to lighten this heavy
current draw on a laptop.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

htnakirs <htnakirs******.com> wrote in news:22bfb97d-dc34-4fa2-a50c-
e001ccae9624@v25g2000yqk.googlegroups.com:

> Any ideas?
>
>

Bad battery pack. Replace


--
Larry

"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:hchv5u$h68$1@news.eternal-
september.org:

> 2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7
>

Horse****.

--
Larry

In news:Xns9CB5A2381E7BAnoonehomecom@74.209.131.13,
Larry typed on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:56:47 +0000:
> "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:hchv5u$h68$1@news.eternal-
> september.org:
>
>> 2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7
>>
>
> Horse****.

I have four batteries only two years old that were always left in the
laptop. I do my own research. And they were never used on battery power
and always on AC and charged. Want to buy them? They are worthless. Yet
the ones I left in a drawer are still doing just fine. Go figure, eh
Larry?

I am still doing research and the ones left in are losing capacity
overtime. Anybody can do this research. Just leave one battery in and
one battery out. And give it two years and then test the capacity of the
two batteries. And the evidence is clear as a bell.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

And, as I have said before, there was a thread on this subject on this
board a number of years ago, it went on for 6 months, thousands of posts
from hundreds of contributors. It was overwhelming, essentially
everyone had Bill's experience (and Bill and I don't agree on much !!):
Leave a battery in laptop that is always plugged in, and it destroys
the battery over 6 to 24 months. There may be some exceptions, but that
is the general rule. You can argue all you want that it shouldn't be
that way, and theoretically, you might even be right. But the
overwhelming evidence of laptop users is .... that this is the way that
it is. And reality beats theory every time.


BillW50 wrote:
> In news:Xns9CB5A2381E7BAnoonehomecom@74.209.131.13,
> Larry typed on Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:56:47 +0000:
>> "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:hchv5u$h68$1@news.eternal-
>> september.org:
>>
>>> 2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7
>>>
>> Horse****.
>
> I have four batteries only two years old that were always left in the
> laptop. I do my own research. And they were never used on battery power
> and always on AC and charged. Want to buy them? They are worthless. Yet
> the ones I left in a drawer are still doing just fine. Go figure, eh
> Larry?
>
> I am still doing research and the ones left in are losing capacity
> overtime. Anybody can do this research. Just leave one battery in and
> one battery out. And give it two years and then test the capacity of the
> two batteries. And the evidence is clear as a bell.
>

> 1) Battery is 3 years old
>
> 2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7
>
> 3) Laptop will only run 10 minutes on battery and shutdown
>
> If the answer is yes to all in the above, regardless of the power meter
> reading, your battery is shot. >
> --
> Bill
> Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
> Windows XP SP2


The answer to the last question is NO, in my case. Eventhough the
meter shows critical level after 10 mins, the battery will support the
laptop for well over an hour - the LED will blink, but the laptop
continues till the battery dies and the laptop shuts down. So this is
not a question of the Li cell losing its capacity, rather the onboard
circuitry going bonkers.

But, from the response it seems there is no routine to recalibrate the
onboard circuitry. I guess I'll have to use it this way till the
battery loses capacity.

By the way, how frequently would you suggest that the battery should
be removed to prolong it's life?

In
news:57b9c901-f6e7-4fe3-907e-0a2e82ec54d3@v36g2000yqv.googlegroups.com,
htnakirs typed on Sun, 1 Nov 2009 05:31:15 -0800 (PST):
>> 1) Battery is 3 years old
>>
>> 2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7
>>
>> 3) Laptop will only run 10 minutes on battery and shutdown
>>
>> If the answer is yes to all in the above, regardless of the power
>> meter reading, your battery is shot. >
>
> The answer to the last question is NO, in my case. Eventhough the
> meter shows critical level after 10 mins, the battery will support the
> laptop for well over an hour - the LED will blink, but the laptop
> continues till the battery dies and the laptop shuts down. So this is
> not a question of the Li cell losing its capacity, rather the onboard
> circuitry going bonkers.
>
> But, from the response it seems there is no routine to recalibrate the
> onboard circuitry. I guess I'll have to use it this way till the
> battery loses capacity.

Okay. Which battery program are you using? The windows one, or another
one? And I would be curious to know what something like BattStat v0.98
tells you.

http://users.rcn.com/tmtalpey/BattStat/

> By the way, how frequently would you suggest that the battery should
> be removed to prolong it's life?

It is best to leave it out whenever you are not using it on battery
power or charging it. Although you have had 3 years out of it and that
is doing well if it was left in. As this suggests the battery doesn't
get too warm too deteriorate very much. Do you believe this is true?

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

"Larry" <noone@home.com> wrote in message
news:Xns9CB5A2381E7BAnoonehomecom@74.209.131.13...
> "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:hchv5u$h68$1@news.eternal-
> september.org:
>
>> 2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7
>>
>
> Horse****.
>

How do you know that isn't?

"Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
news:hci8hu$506$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> And, as I have said before, there was a thread on this subject on this
> board a number of years ago, it went on for 6 months, thousands of posts
> from hundreds of contributors. It was overwhelming, essentially everyone
> had Bill's experience (and Bill and I don't agree on much !!): Leave a
> battery in laptop that is always plugged in, and it destroys the battery
> over 6 to 24 months. There may be some exceptions, but that is the
> general rule. You can argue all you want that it shouldn't be that way,
> and theoretically, you might even be right. But the overwhelming evidence
> of laptop users is .... that this is the way that it is. And reality
> beats theory every time.
>

Larry's track record on battery related postings is pretty abysmal. Best to
ignore him.

"htnakirs" <htnakirs******.com> wrote in message
news:57b9c901-f6e7-4fe3-907e-0a2e82ec54d3@v36g2000yqv.googlegroups.com...
>
>> 1) Battery is 3 years old
>>
>> 2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7
>>
>> 3) Laptop will only run 10 minutes on battery and shutdown
>>
>> If the answer is yes to all in the above, regardless of the power meter
>> reading, your battery is shot. >
>> --
>> Bill
>> Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
>> Windows XP SP2
>
>
> The answer to the last question is NO, in my case. Eventhough the
> meter shows critical level after 10 mins, the battery will support the
> laptop for well over an hour - the LED will blink, but the laptop
> continues till the battery dies and the laptop shuts down. So this is
> not a question of the Li cell losing its capacity, rather the onboard
> circuitry going bonkers.
>
> But, from the response it seems there is no routine to recalibrate the
> onboard circuitry. I guess I'll have to use it this way till the
> battery loses capacity.
>
> By the way, how frequently would you suggest that the battery should
> be removed to prolong it's life?

----------

The symptoms that you post are consistent with an ageing battery. As the
battery ages, the internal resistance of the cells rises. As it is called
upon to deliver current, the terminal voltage of the battery falls more than
it should do. Various bits of circuitry interpret this as a battery short
on available capacity. That it isn't really short on such capacity manifast
itself by continuing to run. It may fail to reboot though depending on how
much capacity there really is left.

The battery should be removed whenever the laptop is connected to AC, except
when charging the battery. The battery is best charged when the laptop is
off to avoid unnecessily heating it up.

"BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in message
news:hck4ib$8gb$1@news.eternal-september.org...
> In news:57b9c901-f6e7-4fe3-907e-0a2e82ec54d3@v36g2000yqv.googlegroups.com,
> htnakirs typed on Sun, 1 Nov 2009 05:31:15 -0800 (PST):
>>> 1) Battery is 3 years old
>>>
>>> 2) Battery is left in the laptop 24/7
>>>
>>> 3) Laptop will only run 10 minutes on battery and shutdown
>>>
>>> If the answer is yes to all in the above, regardless of the power
>>> meter reading, your battery is shot. >
>>
>> The answer to the last question is NO, in my case. Eventhough the
>> meter shows critical level after 10 mins, the battery will support the
>> laptop for well over an hour - the LED will blink, but the laptop
>> continues till the battery dies and the laptop shuts down. So this is
>> not a question of the Li cell losing its capacity, rather the onboard
>> circuitry going bonkers.
>>
>> But, from the response it seems there is no routine to recalibrate the
>> onboard circuitry. I guess I'll have to use it this way till the
>> battery loses capacity.
>
> Okay. Which battery program are you using? The windows one, or another
> one? And I would be curious to know what something like BattStat v0.98
> tells you.
>
> http://users.rcn.com/tmtalpey/BattStat/
>

Be aware that BattStat, good though it is, doesn't always interface reliably
with all battery controllers. According to BattStat, my laptop takes a mere
26 MW from the battery (yes that MegaWatts folks).

In news:4aeeabeb$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net,
M.I.5¾ typed on Mon, 2 Nov 2009 09:53:17 -0000:

> Be aware that BattStat, good though it is, doesn't always interface
> reliably with all battery controllers. According to BattStat, my
> laptop takes a mere 26 MW from the battery (yes that MegaWatts folks).

Yes this is true. As BattStat reports that my Asus EeePCs are
using -2.1MW. Also the CPU temperature doesn't follow the one read from
eeectl. While sometimes they are close, they appear to be two different
sensors. As BattStat reading will rise faster from being ice cold. But
will usually be colder once the netbook is all warmed up.

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

"M.I.5¾" <no.one@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in
news:4aeeaa11$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net:

>
> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:hci8hu$506$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>> And, as I have said before, there was a thread on this subject on
>> this board a number of years ago, it went on for 6 months, thousands
>> of posts from hundreds of contributors. It was overwhelming,
>> essentially everyone had Bill's experience (and Bill and I don't
>> agree on much !!): Leave a battery in laptop that is always plugged
>> in, and it destroys the battery over 6 to 24 months. There may be
>> some exceptions, but that is the general rule. You can argue all you
>> want that it shouldn't be that way, and theoretically, you might even
>> be right. But the overwhelming evidence of laptop users is .... that
>> this is the way that it is. And reality beats theory every time.
>>
>
> Larry's track record on battery related postings is pretty abysmal.
> Best to ignore him.
>
>
>

Yes, be very careful that 50 years of electronic experience, including
everything to do with battery powered equipment from Nickel-Iron "Edison"
cells to Lithium-Polymer battery maintenance may rub off on you.....

Ignore him completely and listen to the mass posters just out of high
school.


--
Larry

In news:Xns9CB79B5361559noonehomecom@74.209.131.13,
Larry typed on Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:16:07 +0000:
> "M.I.5¾" <no.one@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in
> news:4aeeaa11$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net:
>
>> "Barry Watzman" <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in message
>> news:hci8hu$506$1@news.eternal-september.org...
>>> And, as I have said before, there was a thread on this subject on
>>> this board a number of years ago, it went on for 6 months, thousands
>>> of posts from hundreds of contributors. It was overwhelming,
>>> essentially everyone had Bill's experience (and Bill and I don't
>>> agree on much !!): Leave a battery in laptop that is always plugged
>>> in, and it destroys the battery over 6 to 24 months. There may be
>>> some exceptions, but that is the general rule. You can argue all
>>> you want that it shouldn't be that way, and theoretically, you
>>> might even be right. But the overwhelming evidence of laptop users
>>> is .... that this is the way that it is. And reality beats theory
>>> every time.
>>
>> Larry's track record on battery related postings is pretty abysmal.
>> Best to ignore him.
>
> Yes, be very careful that 50 years of electronic experience, including
> everything to do with battery powered equipment from Nickel-Iron
> "Edison" cells to Lithium-Polymer battery maintenance may rub off on
> you.....
>
> Ignore him completely and listen to the mass posters just out of high
> school. -- Larry

Maybe this URL may help. It seems accurate as far as I can tell.

http://www.mpoweruk.com/lithium_failures.htm

Which says that lithium batteries will last longer if they are operated
between 15°C (59°F) to 50°C (122°F). And by 70ºC (158°F) the threat is
really from thermal runaway. Poof!

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2