The message shows up on your laptop: “Consider replacing your battery. There is a problem with your battery, so your computer might shut down suddenly.” You upgraded your laptop from XP or Vista to Windows7. You know that the battery is good. But now you are getting this error message. What do you do?
Microsoft has acknowledged the problem and are working on a solution. Although Microsoft has reported selling some 60 millions Windows 7 licenses, certainly a hit from any standard. A google search shows over 73,000 hits for the “consider replacing your battery” search spec. There is certainly a problem with the battery and Windows7.
Some of the suggestions for repair center on upgrading the BIOS. And while some users at a Windows7 forum have tried that, they continue to report that the problem has not gone away.
How serious is the problem?
The most common complaint seems to be that battery life which used to last between 1.5 hours and 2 hours, is now less that 30 minutes. Some users at the forum are down to 15 minutes of battery life time.
Indeed, some users have complained that their batteries have been permanently damaged by the drainage problems.
Other problems reported are that the laptop will suddenly go into hibernate mode without warning.
A Work Around
It could help to avoid automatic switching off and keep the information about battery charge:
Setup Critical battery action to ‘Do Nothing’. Use the powercfg.exe tool. Essentially change the settings to “do nothing.” Here is how to do that:
- Activate the power scheme you want to modify.
- Open an elevated command console (windows key, type ‘cmd’ in start menu, press “ctrl+shift+enter”, click ‘continue’)
- Execute “powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0″
- Your current power scheme will show “Battery->Critical battery action->On battery: Do nothing” despite the option being unavailable in the drop box.
Note that this workaround is not a solution. Your battery drainage will still occur, but the messages will not appear.
Another possible work around solution: Calibrate the Battery
Another way to address this issue is to pursue the following strategy: completely drain the laptop and attach the A/C adapter to replenish the battery system.
- Fully Charged Up the Laptop Battery to 100 % , then unplugged power cable, and I let the battery drain. Upon reaching 99 % drainage you will start to get the message … consider replacing….
- When the battery is fully drained, laptop goes into hibernate. Power it back on but then it shutdowns completely.
- Checked Bios to confirm if there was any power was left; it had 2 % left.
- Wait 15 minutes to completely drain the laptop of any battery power and confirm that it can not be powered on.
- Remove the battery; then in this condition while the battery is out press the power button this will drain the system of any power left in the laptop.
- At this stage the laptop should be fully drained now.
- Plug in the A/C adapter cable to the laptop and wait 5 minutes. Power up the laptop.
- Under this process while charging the laptop you should not get the error message.
This process should allow you to restore your battery to it’s optimum level.
Source of the Problem
The laptop drainage issue dates back several months, to the Windows 7 beta. But many others state that the problem became more visible until the final “release to manufacturing” (RTM) build. This change in behavior happened when Windows7 went from an RC to RTM.
Microsoft’s Response
Microsoft has acknowledged the issue, saying it’s related to the way Windows 7 reads system firmware. “We are investigating this issue in conjunction with our hardware partners. The warning received in Windows 7 uses firmware information to determine if battery replacement is needed. We are working with our partners to determine the root cause and will update the [Technet] forum with information and guidance as it becomes available.”
Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/01/29/windows_7_laptop_battery_issues/
I have not noticed any serious battery problems on any laptops I use via windows 7 or any other OS….. However.. Their does seem to be a problem with a specific manufacturer of batteries (regardless of cells used) with them dying very early in life or without warning.. I will have to get the manufacturer’s name at a later time.. I’ve had a dell battery and acer battery die early..
Lithium Ion batteries are just not the best these days.. The more you use them the faster they die it seems.. Calibration tools (BIOS – OEM provided ones) are the best as they perform the proper pulsing and draining to calibrate the lithium ion cells..
On a side note if you want to save time while working install Aerofoil and configure on AC for High Perf and on batt for powersaver.. It’ll switch auto for you..
$10 says they are using high performance mode instead of Power saver or balanced… Go figure!
Not exactly… I use power saver mode… I’ve had windows 7 for 10 months now and it started having this problem today……….
well, i have that problem too, i’m using a acer 7520G, and since i installed Windows 7 my battery life is from 1.5-2 hours to 30-45 mins :S I would really like it if there was an solution coming from microsoft.
and, i didn’t have the problem with the beta’s and RC, it is since the RTM
At first I had that problem, but all I had to do was switch into Power Saver or Balanced mode. I only use High Performance when it’s plugged in and I’m doing heavy work.
I guess there is a 6b…..insert the battery.
What mode I use.
Desktop: High Performance
Laptop Plug in: High Performance
Laptop Battery: Power Save Mode
Hmm, idk whats going on with the battery loss, but as far as I go, I have an Asus G50vt-X5 with a 9-cell battery and on the battery alone, I can browse the web for roughly 3 hours before it goes into hibernation. But as far as the plans I use, I just use the Balanced one, but I have it all customized on the inside, so basically its the same as larry’s High performance plugged in, power saver (with a bit extra power) on battery.You can run a “Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report” to see what is going on that is using power, and at/near the bottom there is a status on your battery life in the form of Power capacity, and last full charge capacity.You can run that report through the command prompt.Just do this in the cmd.exe:cd C:Users(your name)Desktoppowercfg -energyexitThis will save a report in a .html file that will open in your browser and you can check that out there.Here is my battery status:Design Capacity 76890Last Full Charge 72743 (at one point it used to be over 80k, but I don’t know how that happens) But basically you can kinda tell how bad your battery is and see if you need to replace it.
Well i was using /windows 7 on my laptop but i also got this problem so i have to uninstall it.Your post is very helpful for me and so i will keep looking around for more information.
I am using windows 7 last 10 months on my laptop. But i have battery Life problem in it. I really like the solution from Microsoft. And I had no problems with the beta and RC is the RTM. You give me all information about it.
I am having this problem.Therefore, I’m going to just going to replace the battery instead.
Dell, an IT company famous for the ease of purchasing computers has completely dropped the ball with this laptop from the design to the service. It is truly unbelievable.
I ever get the problem,but I do not know the Source of the Problem.thank you for share the nice article.http://www.newbatterycharger.co.uk/nied-laptop-battery-sony-vaio-pcg-505ex.htm
yes i think the best is charge the laptop battery once is off then unplugged power cable and then use the laptop