Incorrect time reported

[Chris]

This is a posting from an email support request:

Quote:I've noticed this time around (since reinstalling Vista) that BatteryBar is reporting a shorter runtime for my battery. I'm using the same power management settings as before, along with the same undervolt settings.

Previously it had calculated 2:45 as my battery full lifetime, but this time it seems stuck at 2:08, and it won't change, even though a few times the time remaining was showing 2:11 in the taskbar display. I tried uninstalling it, and deleting the profiles and settings files from the AppData folder to try to reset it and start over, but each time I reinstall it, it picks up the settings and continues where it left off.

Could you tell me how to completely start from scratch again?

And is there anything I should be doing to help it calculate the correct runtime?
I've configured the critical battery level as low as 2% and let the system run until it powered down several times, and it still doesn't seem to be calculating correctly on this install.

[Chris]

If you are using the Trial or Pro version, open up Preferences, go to Tools, and click the button to reset your battery profile data. That will clear out everything and force it to start learning again.

If you are using the free version,

1. Close the BatteryBar toolbar
2. Log off (Start -> Turn off -> Log off)
3. Log back on again
4. Open My Computer and in the address bar go to : %APPDATA%\BatteryBar
5. Delete the BatteryBar.Profiles.xml file
6. Enable the BatteryBar toolbar
   

Note about battery time left
BatteryBar keeps a history of how long your battery takes to discharge 1% at a time (for each percent from 100 down to 0).

As it's first recording data, it guesses that your battery discharge is linear, meaning that if BatteryBar hasn't yet learned how long it takes to go from 50% to 49%, it uses the closes available data (let's say it's learned from 100% to 90%). So, to give an estimate, it assumes that all percentages from 89% down to 0% take the same time as 91% to 90%.

As BatteryBar gets more real data, it no longer guesses, it uses the data that it has. The best time remaining estimate will be when you've run your battery from 100% to 5% (the 'soft' minimum) during normal usage (don't just leave it running doing nothing or it'll give you a really high estimate).

BatteryBar also adjusts it's time remaining estimate on-the-fly. If you are watching a movie that's draining battery faster than your average, it'll apply an adjustment (based on real vs estimated usage) to the time remaining estimate. This goes for times that you're battery is draining SLOWER than normal as well (which is why you see more time remaining that your Full Lifetime reports).

I have two laptops running BatteryBar at home (a netbook and a Dell with dual batteries), and after a few uses, the time remaining settles down to a good, solid number.