FAQ: My battery doesn't last very long. How can I fix it?

[Chris]

BatteryBar is capable of reading information from a laptop battery's smart chip and display that information to the user. In this sense, BatteryBar is purely informational. It's able to read the information, process it, and present to you to allow you, as the user, to make decisions about the health of your battery. Chemical batteries degrade over time. It's simply the nature of the physics of chemical batteries. High quality batteries tend to lose about 2-4% of their maximum storage capacity per month, meaning that they generally will wear out and become unusable in 2-3 years. My own laptop that I use for development is approximately two and half years old and the primary battery can only currently hold about 25% of the original maximum capacity of the battery. I used to be able to get 4 hours of life when it was new, and that's down to less than an hour now.

BatteryBar reports this degraded state as "Battery Wear". Look at the status popup for that value. My battery shows a battery wear of 73%, meaning it currently holds 73% less power than when new. Of course this value is as reported by the battery, and sometimes batteries report inaccurate or invalid data. Once a battery has worn out there is no way to fix it except by replacing the battery. It is possible to "calibrate" the battery's smart chip, which keeps track of how much capacity the battery can actually hold. To do that you must run your battery completely to 0%. This can be done by running the battery down as far as Windows allows and then rebooting into Setup or BIOS mode and leaving the system running on battery until the battery is completely depleted. At that point the battery should be fully charged again to 100% before turning the computer back on. However, this does not actually repair the battery, it only forces the chip in the battery to re-evaluate how much energy the battery can store so it can present a more appropriate percent remaining value.

In short, if your battery is only lasting a few minutes before the system shuts down or turns off, it's time to replace the battery. There are a number of places you can get off-brand batteries for less than a new OEM battery, but you can still expect to pay between $50 and $100. You can try http://www.atbatt.com or other such sites, or purchase a new OEM battery from the laptop manufacturer.

[BurtMillicent]

look, i don't think there is much you can do but to buy a new one.
if you want your new battery to last, try to plug out as rarely as possible