Gaming Windows 7, laptop, instantly shuts down after maybe 10 minutes

[swimmeringer]

So I have this laptop, with Windows 7 Ultimate. When the laptop isn't plugged into the wall (running on battery), i can get maybe 10 minutes (if i'm lucky) of power before it just *POW* shuts off. There's no shutting down process. I can't turn it on after this until I plug it into the wall. I know when I first got this laptop, the battery life was about 3 hours (it's a beast laptop, not one of those 10-hour things). Now, when running on battery, it says it could last 30 minutes. But it lasts much less.


Help?


Quick facts:

Windows 7 x64 Ultimate
Acer laptop
One year old
Shuts down on battery power ONLY, after a few minutes of non-intensive process (internet, etc)
Annoying


Thanks in advance!

 

[Elritha]

Possibly the battery has lost the ability to hold much of a charge. It happens eventually, though it's quite sudden for a laptop that is just one year old. On certain laptops you can check the battery health in the bios.

 

[Originality]

Sounds like either a battery fault (batteries need to provide a constant stream of power - or it'll cut off) or battery failure (i.e. it's losing its ability to hold charge, as above). All Li-on batteries have a 1-3 year life expectancy.

It could also be that windows and/or BIOS has been mis-calibrated, thinking that it has 30 minutes of charge left when in fact it really only has 10. Because of this, when it runs out of charge early, windows is not expecting this and has no time to shut down/sleep/hibernate (it usually does this when the battery gets down to around 5%).

 

[GundamXXX]

First thing I would do is as suggested above check every setting in the BIOS

But if you dont know what your doing get someone else to do it lol

 

[cobleman]

Buy a new battery and make sure you condition it properly.
The main problem with laptop's is that we leave them on the mains power all the time
so after time the battery is unconditioned for use and can only charge to a max of 10% or less
so as a rule get into the habit of taking it off of the power and run it down to 20% before you recharge

 

[Originality]

Just had a lil look on Wiki about it.

* A disadvantage of lithium-ion cells is their poor cycle life: upon every charge or recharge, deposits form inside the electrolyte that inhibit lithium ion transport. Over time, the capacity of the cell diminishes. The increase in internal resistance affects the cell's ability to deliver current. This problem is more pronounced in high-current applications. The increasing capacity hit means that a full charge in an older battery will not last as long as one in a new battery (although the charging time required decreases proportionally).
* Also, high charge levels and elevated temperatures (whether resulting from charging or being ambient) hasten permanent capacity loss for lithium-ion batteries.[32][33] The heat generated during a charge cycle is caused by the traditional carbon anode, which has been replaced with lithium titanate. Lithium titanate has been experimentally shown to drastically reduce the degenerative effects associated with charging, including expansion and other factors.[34] See "Technology improvements" below.
* At a 100% charge level, a typical Li-ion laptop battery that is full most of the time at 25 °C or 77 °F will irreversibly lose approximately 20% capacity per year. However, a battery in a poorly ventilated laptop may be subject to prolonged exposure to higher temperatures, which will shorten its life. Different storage temperatures produce different loss results: 6% loss at 0 °C (32 °F), 20% at 25 °C (77 °F), and 35% at 40 °C (104 °F). When stored at 40%–60% charge level, the capacity loss is reduced to 2%, 4%, 15% at 0, 25 and 40 degrees Celsius respectively.[35][citation needed]
And their tips for prolonging battery life:
QUOTEGuidelines for prolonging lithium-ion battery life

* Lithium-ion batteries should never be depleted below their minimum voltage (2.4 to 2.8 V/cell, depending on chemistry). If a lithium-ion battery is stored with too low a charge, there is a risk that the charge will drop below the low-voltage threshold, resulting in an unrecoverable dead battery.[75] Usually this does not instantly damage the battery itself but a charger or device which uses that battery will refuse to charge a dead battery. The battery appears to be dead or not existent because the protection circuit disables further discharging and there is zero voltage on the battery terminals.[75]

* Lithium-ion batteries should be kept cool. They may be stored in a refrigerator.[75]
* Lithium-ion batteries degrade much faster if stored in high-temperature areas.[75]

 

[exangel]

Buy a new battery and make sure you condition it properly.
The main problem with laptop's is that we leave them on the mains power all the time
so after time the battery is unconditioned for use and can only charge to a max of 10% or less
so as a rule get into the habit of taking it off of the power and run it down to 20% before you recharge

I may be wrong, and misinformed about this, but I was under the impression most laptops made in recent years have a safeguard against battery deterioration due to being on constant AC power. Namely a mechanism that closes the circuit to the battery if it is already at a full charge, or within a percentage range of being at full.

The ASUS laptop I bought in 2007 still holds most of its original charge/capacity as I have recently tested with BatteryBar* and real usage even though it:
- Has a dedicated Radeon HD graphics card in addition to the integrated graphics in the motherboard (the latter of which is of course, default off)
- Has always been connected to an AC power source with only a couple bus/train trips taking advantage of its battery.


In earlier years I owned an IBM Thinkpad during the Windows98 era; treated the same way, the battery was completely/permanently depleted after little over a year. If I remember correctly it was not a Li-ion battery, but NiMH.

If what I have described is all correct and applies to the original poster's laptop as well, it's more likely that there is something malfunctioning or not optimally functioning in the laptop's power management system or the Battery's Battery Management System or perhaps both to some extent.

Looking around the web at articles from blogs, shops, and apple I find a lot of conflicting information-- which may be why there is NOTHING on Wikipedia about "Conditioning" Li-ion batteries one way or another. After reading the Talk page for Wikipedia's Li-ion article I'm falling asleep so that's the end of my commentary.


* BatteryBar (http://osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/index.html) can show you detailed information about your battery wear and capacity.

 

[Originality]

I bought my media laptop roughly three years ago (Packard Bell EasyNote SB series) and it's been hooked up to mains most of its life. It didn't have an amazing battery life to begin with (an hour at most, even with Eco mode tweaks) but it got really low after two years and now Windows is reporting it as a faulty battery (i.e. dead).

I'm sure there is a battery management system for some (maybe even most) laptops, but certainly not all.

 

[exangel]

I bought my media laptop roughly three years ago (Packard Bell EasyNote SB series) and it's been hooked up to mains most of its life. It didn't have an amazing battery life to begin with (an hour at most, even with Eco mode tweaks) but it got really low after two years and now Windows is reporting it as a faulty battery (i.e. dead).

I'm sure there is a battery management system for some (maybe even most) laptops, but certainly not all.

Packard Bell still exists?!
In the United States there was such a fuss when they were charged with using refurbished parts in "new" systems that they stopped being distributed through mainstream vendors and I haven't heard anything about them in over ten years..


and technically, all working Li-ion batteries have a Battery Management System or they would malfunction

 

[Jasper07]

I also have this problem with my laptop, and 3 other laptops in the house. And I think all you can do is buy a new battery. Because I guess batteries lose capacity after a while.

 

[GentleFist]

if you rule out the impossible whats left is the truth

so since the laptop does work if its plugged in the laptop isnt faulty

the akku is the problem

 

[Originality]

Wow, I knew that PB are slowly disappearing, but I never heard that before. This particular SB series laptop was part of a "Limited Edition" range where they used flashy, sparkly cases with colour themes. Mine is 17" so it's got the "chocolate" brown theme. It's a very nice laptop, but when I upgraded the CPU, I discovered they didn't use any thermal paste at all. I applied some of my own and got very worried for the following week because the fan was so quiet! Much lower temperature, much higher speeds, and a laptop that I'll still be using for another couple years (even if it has a dead battery)!