BatteryBar way off on new battery

[Starry173]

I got a replacement for my netbook - 8 cell battery

Right now, BatterBar shows 100% and charging with Full Lifetime set to 2.52 hours. At one point, I showed about 4 hours left with the lifetime set at 2.52 hours...
Anyway, if I unplug the AC, the prgram that came with the laptop shows 100% and the time is fluctuating between 7 and 8 hours, which is where the battery should be. On my first try with this battery, it lasted all morning and most of the after noon. Battery Bar, right now, is showing 99.3% with 2.54 (Discharging) and 2.52 Full Lifetime. The Capacity reads 77.400 mWh of 78440 mWh and battery wear is 0.0% of 74000 mWh.
The last battery seemed to fairly closely match the battery meter and I trusted the numbers on BatterBar more. Is it just that the program has to "learn" this battery and eventually, the numbers will be correct?

[Chris]

To really know what's going on, I'd need a log file. You can follow these steps to record it: http://osirisdevelopment.com/wiki/Submit_a_bug_report

In general, BatteryBar uses 2 methods of determining battery life.

1. If no battery profile data has been collected, then it uses a raw time estimate, exactly like Windows. This is simply Capacity Remaining / Discharge Rate. Every time the discharge rate changes, so does the time remaining (often by a large amount). This is why I don't like the Windows built-in meter. It fluctuates way too much, and doesn't take into account that your computer will shutdown before 0%.

2. Once enough battery profile data has been collected (I believe the threshold is around 3-5%), then that data is used to estimate the full lifetime and the time remaining. As more data is collected, the estimate becomes more accurate.

When you first install BatteryBar there's potential to have an estimate that's really off because you could have discharged through that first 3-5% really quickly, more so than usual, and it assumes the entire battery discharges that quickly. So the best thing to do is run it through 1 discharge cycle from 100% to 10% or so. After that, every time you discharge your battery, the profile data gets averaged with the new data, so the graph will, over time, become a very good representation of your AVERAGE use of the laptop.

In addition to that, BatteryBar also keeps track of it's "accuracy". In other words, it compares how long the battery has ACTUALLY taken to discharge versus how long it estimated it should have taken to discharge over the same percentage range. It then adjusts the time remaining estimate based on that ratio. So if you're watching a movie that drains your battery at 140% of normal, then your time estimate will reflect that and be 40% (or whatever the number is) lower than normal.

Also, if you activate your Pro trial (or you have a Pro license) right-click and select Battery Profile Graph. That'll show you the graph of the data it has. Solid color means there is data there, hashed color means there's no data and that's just an estimate. You can actually keep that graph open while your battery discharges and watch how BatteryBar populates the data and adjusts the time remaining/full lifetime.

[Starry173]

Thanks for the information. I will just give it time and see how it goes. Thanks again.