Swift 3 (SF314-41-R974) battery replacement

garfieldd

Hey There.

So I've had my laptop for about a year and a half now, and the battery health has really started to take a toll. My battery's capacity was originally 48,944 mWh which lasted me upwards of 6-7 hours of battery life. However, I noticed recently the battery barely lasts longer than 2 hours and the maximum capacity has decreased to 33,364 mWh.

Instinctively I went looking online for battery replacements, however, all the ones that I could find that were compatible with my laptop were only 33,000 mWh.

Is there any point in replacing the battery or will it likely last the same amount of time as it does now?

My laptop model is SF314-41-R974.

Any help is greatly appreciated

AnhEZ28

@garfieldd try to search for the replacement battery using the original battery model. To check for the battery model, you can follow this guide:https://www.groovypost.com/howto/generate-battery-report-windows-10/

Athwart

@garfieldd You should be able to find a 4 cell 48Wh replacement battery. Just do a search for "Acer SF314-41 battery" or "AC14b8K battery". I'd personally pay the extra for a genuine replacement but you will also find cheaper generic batteries. Just make sure that they are 4 cell 48Wh rather than the 3 cell type.

As to your question about the battery life, a lower capacity battery such as the 33Wh battery should in theory give lower usage time i.e. if the PC draws 0.8W, 48Wh gives 6 hrs use whereas 33Wh gives 4 hrs use. But it's not that straightforward. As you've noted, your battery has deteriorated to about 33Wh but is only providing 2 hrs usage i.e. quite a bit less than a new battery should. I'm not an expert but I think a new battery even if only a 3 cell 33Wh would give more usage than your existing battery but less than a new 4 cell battery.

As to whether you actually need a new battery yet, that depends on how much you need to use it on battery i.e. if you mostly have power available, you can probably keep using it indefinitely on power. But you'll gradually get less life when you need to use it on battery.

Note that you can dig into the various methods to extend battery life. Apart from the common things like screen brightness & disabling unneeded devices & services, another thing that costs battery life is the gradual accrual of various programs & services running compared to when it is new. A clean out programs that aren't used can sometimes help.

billsey

There are two batteries that Acer has used in your model. Their part numbers are: KT.0030G.020 and KT.0040G.011. They should both be the same, only sourced from different vendors.

Before you replace the battery though, be sure and do the full battery reset and a couple of Windows calibration cycles first. Often the issue is just that they are getting confused as to the real status.

To do the reset shut down and disconnect everything including the charger. Flip the laptop over and use something like a bent paperclip to press and hold the button behind the reset pin hole, press and hold for 15-30 seconds then release. Leave it alone and go have your favorite beverage, waiting 15-30 minutes then plug only the charger back in. Wait for the battery indicator to show a full charge then power it back up. At this point you should have a battery with reset internal statistics.

Now, disconnect the charger and allow Windows to run long enough that it shuts down for a low battery. That may happen at 10%, 5% or 3% by default, but it's configurable so expect it somewhere in the range. Plug the charger back in with the laptop off and wait again for the full battery indicator. At this point Windows will have a much better idea of battery life than before. Run the Windows calibration as many times as you feel comfortable doing, since each one is several hours long, each time through it'll get better with understanding the true life of the battery.

Finally do your battery health check again and see what it says... If you are still down significantly from where you started then it's time to start looking into replacements, or as Athwart suggests continuing to use what you have, with lowered expectations for overall battery life.

Easwar

Hi @garfieldd,

Contact acer support

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/NZ/content/service-contact

garfieldd

Athwart said:

@garfieldd You should be able to find a 4 cell 48Wh replacement battery. Just do a search for "Acer SF314-41 battery" or "AC14b8K battery". I'd personally pay the extra for a genuine replacement but you will also find cheaper generic batteries. Just make sure that they are 4 cell 48Wh rather than the 3 cell type.

As to your question about the battery life, a lower capacity battery such as the 33Wh battery should in theory give lower usage time i.e. if the PC draws 0.8W, 48Wh gives 6 hrs use whereas 33Wh gives 4 hrs use. But it's not that straightforward. As you've noted, your battery has deteriorated to about 33Wh but is only providing 2 hrs usage i.e. quite a bit less than a new battery should. I'm not an expert but I think a new battery even if only a 3 cell 33Wh would give more usage than your existing battery but less than a new 4 cell battery.

As to whether you actually need a new battery yet, that depends on how much you need to use it on battery i.e. if you mostly have power available, you can probably keep using it indefinitely on power. But you'll gradually get less life when you need to use it on battery.

Note that you can dig into the various methods to extend battery life. Apart from the common things like screen brightness & disabling unneeded devices & services, another thing that costs battery life is the gradual accrual of various programs & services running compared to when it is new. A clean out programs that aren't used can sometimes help.

Great thank you for this!

I was also having some issues with Bluetooth audio cutting out, both the battery and Bluetooth started performing weirdly after I updated to windows 11. Just reverted yesterday and Bluetooth is fixed and the battery seems to be lasting around 4-5 hours (a lot more trustworthy when constantly out). By the looks of it, Windows 11 just needs a few bugs and kinks ironed out so I'll just stay away from the update for a couple of weeks or so. 

Thanks for your help though! If the battery gets funny again I'll be sure to take another look at this