SF514-54T Battery

bu62697

Hi all,

I've had this laptop for around 8 months now but because of covid and working from home I haven't used it all that often. One thing I found was that the battery life was pretty poor, sometimes I'd get only 3-4 hours out of it even with light usage. Yesterday, it was 18% and died within 20 minutes. Running a battery report, it appears I average maybe 5-6 hours? but more towards 5 hours and it's gone as low as 2 hours and 50 minutes. I've tried resetting the battery using the pinhole but then my cycle count tripled (30+ to 100) and now I'm worried if I try to get it fixed under warranty, they will just say its normal battery degradation. It's always been on battery saver mode and I don't really use it for anything beyond web browsing. Any suggestions?

Thanks

bu62697

I'd also just like to add that even though it says 5 hours, I really think I get more like 4 at best. My screen brightness is also always really low.

billsey

There are so many things that affect battery life... Try two things, the first is that same battery reset, but the full procedure:

Disconnect power from the laptop. Press and hold the battery reset button for 15-30 seconds then release. Wait 15-30 minutes then plug the power back in, do not start the computer yet. Wait for the indicator to show full charge then turn it on. Use it for a while to see how well the battery is lasting...

If that doesn't seem to help the 2nd step is a Windows battery recalibration:

Disconnect power while running. Wait for Windows to turn the system off due to low battery, note you might need to switch to high performance or tweak the settings to keep it from falling asleep. Plug the power in, but don't turn the computer on. Wait for full battery indication and turn it on. Often you'll have to go through the recalibration a few times to get things accurate again. Each time through should be a little better.

If you are still not getting the battery life you want then we'll likely have to diagnose what's running in the background. Often WLAN activity uses battery more than other tasks, as does Bluetooth. As you are aware screen brightness also does it, as does screen activity, so a static display showing something like email uses less energy than a video playing...

bu62697

billsey said:

There are so many things that affect battery life... Try two things, the first is that same battery reset, but the full procedure:

Disconnect power from the laptop. Press and hold the battery reset button for 15-30 seconds then release. Wait 15-30 minutes then plug the power back in, do not start the computer yet. Wait for the indicator to show full charge then turn it on. Use it for a while to see how well the battery is lasting...

If that doesn't seem to help the 2nd step is a Windows battery recalibration:

Disconnect power while running. Wait for Windows to turn the system off due to low battery, note you might need to switch to high performance or tweak the settings to keep it from falling asleep. Plug the power in, but don't turn the computer on. Wait for full battery indication and turn it on. Often you'll have to go through the recalibration a few times to get things accurate again. Each time through should be a little better.

If you are still not getting the battery life you want then we'll likely have to diagnose what's running in the background. Often WLAN activity uses battery more than other tasks, as does Bluetooth. As you are aware screen brightness also does it, as does screen activity, so a static display showing something like email uses less energy than a video playing...

Thank you, the battery calibration didn't do much, battery report still only reporting 5 hours but from my calculations its less. I'm trying the fully charge and fully deplete method now. How do I check what's running in the background? My laptop in sleep loses about 10% over night. My battery report says: 

DESIGN CAPACITY	55,963 mWh
FULL CHARGE CAPACITY	50,404 mWh
CYCLE COUNT	108

3:23:02	943:13:07 2 % / 16 h		3:41:14	1027:46:19 2 % / 16 h
2020-10-10	-	-		-	-
2020-10-11	4:58:13	203:35:35 8 % / 16 h		5:28:29	224:14:58 7 % / 16 h

Is this normal? It seems to have lost 5000mWh. I know it says a cycle count of 108 but as I said, it was only 30 something before I pressed the reset button/

billsey

So if you are dropping 10% overnight in sleep mode something is still active. Normally that would be something like the wireless keeping connected so when you wake it up it doesn't need to reconnect before you have internet. That's not unusual but isn't optimal for low power use. Which power plan are you using? Try using a different one and see how much that affects things. I typically run a custom plan with maximum performance when the AC is connected and minimum power when on battery.

bu62697

billsey said:

So if you are dropping 10% overnight in sleep mode something is still active. Normally that would be something like the wireless keeping connected so when you wake it up it doesn't need to reconnect before you have internet. That's not unusual but isn't optimal for low power use. Which power plan are you using? Try using a different one and see how much that affects things. I typically run a custom plan with maximum performance when the AC is connected and minimum power when on battery.

Hi billsey, 

I've always had it on best battery life since I got the laptop due to the battery life. My plan is on balanced. I also don't think it's the wifi, whenever I turn my laptop back on I always have to wait a few seconds for it to reconnect. Sometimes the blue indicator light on the side turns on/stays on though but I'm not sure what that is for. I'm still doing the battery calibration by running it down. I also don't have bluetooth on/seldom use bluetooth anyways.