Notebook power supply problems

[theboozemaster]

Hi people!

I have an 18-month old P4 1.8MHz notebook and i used to get 2.5 hours max with it. Now, I am lucky to get 40 minutes max. I have always been concious of charging it only when prompted if i ever unplug it. However, I do keep it plugged in majority of the time. Is my battery dying? I want to recondition it myslef to save money. Any ideas on where or how to start?

Thanks!

 

[me(who else?)]

Surprisingly, I'm having the same problem on my 1 year old Toshiba. It gets a huge amount of on wall use, and I have a laptop cooler running on the USB port. It must be something about my battery, but I can't afford to buy a new one. The loss of battery life corresponds to my laptop install of Red Hat 9.

 

[Th3M1ghtyD8]

AFAIK, In order to get maximum life from a laptop's battery, you should fully discharge it before recharging it, and if not using the laptop for a while leave the battery in a fully discharged state. When using laptops on the mains supply for a long period of time, then the battery should be removed (but noone ever does), otherwise it will attempt to keep the battery trickle-charged, topping it up, which can reduce the lifetime of the battery.

 

[Nodsu]

Keep in mind that Linux' power manament is not that advanced and you will never get as much battery life out of it as with Windows.

When your battery is misbehaving, try several charge cycles - let it run to 0%, then do a full charge. By 0% I mean that you leave your computer at boot prompt until it dies. Windows prompts you to charge your battery at some 10% which is way too early and it may hibernate at some 3% which is not 0% either.

 

[Liquidlen]

Just a note to those of you that will be going to buy a replacement battery. Rechargables have a shelf life of around 3 years, after which their level of proficiency tails off radically.Try to determine the date of manufacture from the retailer you deal with, and at least buy from a reputable firm.The cheap deal , may not be at all ,in the long run.
As for boosting your existing battery ,try Nodsu's advice, about 3-4 complete cycles.
When you are running on battery,Turn off(disable) all unused items, eg. WiFi.
Reduce screen power level as far as you can.
If possible do not use USB devices.
CD, DVD, drives are a big drain , minimize their use.

 

[theboozemaster]

battery + new problems

Thanks for the replies guys... but i have a new problem... my notebook suddenly died last night! When i placed it on my lap and adjusted the screen, the display suddenly went out. I thought it just went to sleep/hybernation mode so i tried waking it up, but to no success. I manually switched it off and on again and it won't even post now. I noticed the drive spins up and the drive LED indicator lights up (constant, not flickering) but the fan does not spin! When last i booted it up normally, the fan would spin and all led activity would be seen. Now it just sits there doing nothing.

I then tried taking out my RAM - I have 2 sticks of sodimm ram - 1x128MB & 1x256MB. Strangely enough, if i use the 128MB stick only, it boots up but still no fan spin. With the 256MB stick, it would not post. No beeping sounds either. If i boot it up without memory, it beeps 2 or 3 fast ones with 1 long one.

Should I just bring it to the shop (I have 3 years warranty) or is it just really a RAM issue? But if it is, why does my fan not spin? It should right?

Thanks!

 

[Liquidlen]

Take it straight away ,the fan not spinning does not sound good.
Laptops do not lend themselves easily to home repairs.
And you could easily ruin your warranty if they believe you may have caused the problem doing unauthorized attempts at a repair.