Acer Swift 3 Sf314-57 Battery lasts only 1,5 hours after 1 year

Batmaci
Batmaci Member Posts: 56 Devotee WiFi Icon
my Acer Swift 3 is only 1 year old and battery is now only lasting 1,5 hours on surfing on internet, no video watching. Acer promises 12-13 hours which i never got from the beginning. At the beginning it was only 3-4 hours now dropped to 1,5 hours. I have even paid an extra insurance including covering battery damage.  I have tried all resetting battery, reinstalling windows etc. but i believe it has nothing to do with the software issue. If i have to buy every year a new battery, this is crazy and it will cost me a lot of money. what could be the issue? anyone else experience this problem?

Answers

  • christy1
    christy1 Member Posts: 1,619 Community Aficionado WiFi Icon
    Batmaci

    Try a battery calibration. good you have extended warranty. as you said its not looking like software issue. Initially for a new battery we need to charge for certain hrs. check that in guide lines. i charge for 4-8hrs for my unit if its the 1st charge for the battery. send it for service or request for a new battery alone. sometimes they have options to send battery instead of service from store. 
    https://www.howtogeek.com/172271/how-to-calibrate-your-laptops-battery-for-accurate-battery-life-estimates/​  
    Accept if its Helpful.   B)
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,219 Trailblazer
    Software makes a huge difference in battery life. The more tings run in the background, the shorter the time the battery can keep things running. Look for applications that use more power than normal, such as antivirus programs, Bluetooth devices, apps that do network activity, etc..
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Athwart
    Athwart Member Posts: 87 Fixer WiFi Icon
    Batmaci said:
    my Acer Swift 3 is only 1 year old and battery is now only lasting 1,5 hours on surfing on internet, no video watching. Acer promises 12-13 hours which i never got from the beginning. At the beginning it was only 3-4 hours now dropped to 1,5 hours.
    My Acer Swift SF314-57-539F is about 3 months old & I get about 6-7 hrs active use from it. Sounds like your battery is definitely suspect if you only got 3-4 hrs when new. And unless you are doing all the wrong things that damage a battery's life, degrading to half that in a year is unusual. See here for what to do & not do to care for a battery: Debunking Battery Life Myths for Mobile Phones, Tablets, and Laptops (howtogeek.com) 

    Try running the following in a Command prompt to get a report on the battery: powercfg /batteryreport
    It will give you recent battery usage & historical usage information since new. For my fairly new Swift 3, it reports:
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY = 50,298 mWh
    DESIGN CAPACITY =  48,003 mWh
    with no degradation in the last 3 months.

    If the battery report suggests that the battery capacity is OK, then look into @christy1's or (more likely) @billsey's suggestions.
  • Batmaci
    Batmaci Member Posts: 56 Devotee WiFi Icon
    @Athwart
     nice suggestion thanks. Your full charge capacity is higher than deign capacity, my one looks other way around.

    DESIGN CAPACITY48.003 mWh
    FULL CHARGE CAPACITY36.405 mWh
    CYCLE COUNT401

    I see that i was accurate with the numbers. Report shows me that  in 1,5 hours it drops from 102% to 5%

    2021-04-0216:34:46Connected standbyBattery102 %36.855 mWh
    16:34:46ActiveBattery102 %36.855 mWh
    17:29:37Connected standbyBattery41 %14.850 mWh
    17:30:01ActiveBattery41 %14.726 mWh
    18:00:54ActiveAC5 %1.912 mWh
    When I bought in 13.01.2020

    my battery seems to be drained drammatically in 1 year

    PERIODFULL CHARGE CAPACITYDESIGN CAPACITY
    2020-01-13 - 2020-01-2049.683 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-01-20 - 2020-01-2749.246 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-01-27 - 2020-02-0349.421 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-02-03 - 2020-02-1049.543 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-02-10 - 2020-02-1749.316 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-02-17 - 2020-02-2450.157 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-02-24 - 2020-03-0249.902 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-03-02 - 2020-03-0949.309 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-03-09 - 2020-03-1648.930 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-03-16 - 2020-03-2348.667 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-03-23 - 2020-03-3048.702 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-03-30 - 2020-04-0648.754 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-04-06 - 2020-04-1348.651 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-04-13 - 2020-04-2048.428 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-04-20 - 2020-04-2748.143 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-04-27 - 2020-05-0448.183 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-05-04 - 2020-05-1848.375 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-05-18 - 2020-05-2547.782 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-05-25 - 2020-06-0147.991 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-06-01 - 2020-06-0847.979 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-06-08 - 2020-06-1547.775 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-06-15 - 2020-06-2247.777 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-06-22 - 2020-06-2947.790 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-06-29 - 2020-07-0647.790 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-07-06 - 2020-07-1347.790 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-07-13 - 2020-07-2047.533 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-07-20 - 2020-07-2747.054 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-07-27 - 2020-08-0347.098 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-08-03 - 2020-08-1046.980 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-08-10 - 2020-08-1746.859 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-08-17 - 2020-08-2446.678 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-08-24 - 2020-08-3146.563 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-08-31 - 2020-09-0746.366 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-09-07 - 2020-09-2145.565 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-09-21 - 2020-09-2842.899 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-09-28 - 2020-10-0541.169 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-10-05 - 2020-10-1240.219 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-10-12 - 2020-10-1937.845 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-10-19 - 2020-10-2637.597 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-10-26 - 2020-11-0237.597 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-11-02 - 2020-11-0937.585 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-11-09 - 2020-11-1637.057 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-11-16 - 2020-11-2337.373 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-11-23 - 2020-11-3037.662 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-11-30 - 2020-12-0737.608 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-12-07 - 2020-12-1437.683 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-12-14 - 2020-12-2137.711 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-12-21 - 2020-12-2836.973 mWh48.003 mWh
    2020-12-28 - 2021-01-0437.350 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-01-04 - 2021-01-1137.371 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-01-11 - 2021-01-1837.341 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-01-18 - 2021-01-2537.480 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-01-25 - 2021-02-0137.512 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-02-01 - 2021-02-0836.967 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-02-08 - 2021-02-1536.967 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-02-15 - 2021-02-2237.236 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-02-22 - 2021-03-0136.869 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-03-01 - 2021-03-0836.270 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-03-08 - 2021-03-1536.270 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-03-15 - 2021-03-2236.270 mWh48.003 mWh
    2021-03-22 - 2021-03-2936.270 mWh48.003 mWh

    See in 2020 January it shows active estimated time 3-4 hours only on standby 13 hours. is that really how it supposed to be? 


    Is that not fooling the consumer? I had my Acer TimelineX from 2010, it had good 8 hours active battery life and even after 10 years it was lasting 2-3 hours. Thats the only reason i trusted Acer and bought another acer laptop. How does the numbers look like for you? Is it a general thing or only mine?


  • Athwart
    Athwart Member Posts: 87 Fixer WiFi Icon
    Is that not fooling the consumer? I had my Acer TimelineX from 2010, it had good 8 hours active battery life and even after 10 years it was lasting 2-3 hours. Thats the only reason i trusted Acer and bought another acer laptop. How does the numbers look like for you? Is it a general thing or only mine?

    Well I'm no expert & can only speak to my own experience. I see that your battery started out with a Full Charge Capacity of 49.683 mWh i.e. higher than the design capacity but quite quickly became less. Down to 48.930 mWh after 3 months. My Full Charge Capacity when new was a little higher but similar however there has been no degradation after 3 months (100 cycles cf your 400 cycles in a year).

    I also see that your active battery life estimates when new were in the range of 3.5-4.5 hrs. Mine were about 6-7 hrs. This seems to indicate that you're running significantly more power intensive applications/processes than mine.

    As a side note, these battery life estimates are theoretical rather than actual since the battery should never be drained to empty. They also seem to be a bit optimistic. In practice, I get about 3-3.5 hrs from full charge down to 30-35% charge. I put it back on power when it drops to 30%.

    Regarding the better performance you've had with a previous Acer, I did see a review that said the battery in the 2020 314-57 had been downgraded from the previous 2019 model. I guess that is a design/cost trade-off. In my case, I previously had a very old Acer Aspire. With a new battery it would start with about 3 hrs use but the batteries were stuffed after about 3 years and had to be replaced. For me, the 314-57 is a nice improvement.

    To my inexpert eye, it looks like your battery started life OK but has degraded too quickly. Possible causes:
    - bad battery
    - improper usage i.e. regularly draining too low, too hot/cold environment, etc. See the article I previously quoted about battery care.
    - high power demand applications/processes. Your power demand seems notably higher than mine. There's plenty of suggestions around about how to minimise battery consumption e.g. lower screen brightness, disable Bluetooth, disable unwanted programs & services, etc. You can get a quick but low info view of applications' power consumption in Task Manager or a much more detailed view by running "powercfg 
    /srumutil" in a Command prompt. Open up the srumutil.csv report file & sort on thelast "TotalEnergyConsumption" field (highest to lowest). Look to see if there's an unexpected or un-needed power hog that may be draining the battery. In my case, the highest power usage is by the system and my anti-virus program.

    Bottom line is that I think your current battery appears to be stuffed. Replace it when it gets unbearable or before the warranty expires. But there may be ways to lower the power drain and improve the longevity of your battery but you'll need to dig into possible causes.
  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,219 Trailblazer
    What does Battery usage per app say in Battery Settings? I still lean toward it being apps and drivers pulling it down.
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • Batmaci
    Batmaci Member Posts: 56 Devotee WiFi Icon
    @billsey
    list is always empty for me. any idea why?
    I am using it on battery power for sure even right now while writing this reply.


  • billsey
    billsey ACE Posts: 34,219 Trailblazer
    Yeah, you'll have to run it longer on battery, so it can grab enough usage to give you the statistics...
    Click on "Like" if you find my answer useful or click on "Yes" if it answers your question.
  • 2EZY
    2EZY Member Posts: 1 New User
    yo can u tell me how u fixed the balaced plan in power plan

  • Batmaci
    Batmaci Member Posts: 56 Devotee WiFi Icon
    2EZY said:
    yo can u tell me how u fixed the balaced plan in power plan

    I am not sure what you are asking or is it to me? but i couldnt fix anything. Acers laptop just full of false information. there is unfortunately nothing to fix. From the very beginning it was just a marketing lie with all those long hours as you can see in my test list