Laptop Battery.........

[WIMUSKY]

We have a HP Pavilion, about a year old. It tends to shut off even tho the battery indicator sez there is still juice. It will last about 1hr fully charged. Did a little research and came up with this:

If your laptop shuts off while you seem to have power left, you can try a single full drain to reset the battery's calibration.

How would one go about doing that? Leave the computer on and let it drain? But if it shuts down early that isn't really accomplishing anything.....

Thanks.....
Musky

 

[Boomyal]

Take the battery to a Batteries Plus store and see if they can make a determination. It might be a memory thing. I have a cordless phone that does the same thing. It only happens after an extended conversation but the indicator still shows full charge. I put it back on the charger and it is good for normal length conversations.

 

[GA_Boater]

I'm not familiar with W8 (???), but I think you can set where the lappy goes into hibernation or shuts off due to low battery. In the power settings look for what percentage of power it goes into shutdown and set it for around 5%. After it shuts down, do a full recharge. No guarantee, but that was how you minimize battery memory in Ni-Cads, a lower than normal discharge followed by a recharge.

 

[WIMUSKY]

GA, the only setting I can find is how many minutes it takes for the screen to power off in battery or plugged in, or, minutes before it goes into sleep mode. Not seeing anything about percentages.... Good idea tho...

 

[GA_Boater]

It is probably those settings that are causing the LT to power off. Not because the battery is low, but because of a time thing - Maybe. How long is the current time setting? If you change those settings to never, that should do it, Musky.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Thanks GA... Turned the settings to never.. We'll see how long this thing stays on now...... Didn't know never was an option until I scrolled......

 

[GA_Boater]

Just use

 

[MTboatguy]

Wim, you should have the HP tool on that computer if it is a year old, my Pavilion with W8 has them and it is over 2 years old, go to start menu, programs and then find HP Help and support, click to open that and choose HP support assistant, that will bring up their support program, and there is all kinds of programs there that will check warranty status, battery status and how much longer it will be good, any HP specific updates needed, etc. A good little program to keep track of things.

The battery thing on Win8 is a finicky program and you have to manually adjust things to get it like you want, battery management in the newer computers is all program driven and set to what someone else thinks is good for the environment and what ever else they have a whim about.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Still shutting down after 1hr with 50% of the battery still available. Also, screen is flashing. I must have a loose connection between the keyboard and the screen. The wire must run thru one of the hinges. How difficult is it to fix? This LT was a year old in Nov. I'm assuming the warranty has run out....

Just searched warranty and it's 12 months... This screen thing has been going on for a while. I should have payed closer attention when I still had a warranty..

MT, I saw that stuff going thru a different route. Except warranty info.....

 

[MTboatguy]

If you have a loose wire on the screen it is pretty easy to fix, is it just flashing or are you getting off color fading and blinking type behavior? As far as the loose wire thing, you just need to pop the screen bezel, pop the screen and un-plug and re-plug the wires on the screen, do it carefully it is small and be real careful, there is two or three wires behind the bezel that are the wireless adapter antenna. That said, depending on the model, you might have to take the keyboard bezel off as well to get to the screen wiring. Do a search specifically based on your model concerning screen removal. I have done that on several laptop models over the years and usually find a website that either has pictures of the process or a video on the specific model you have. If you don't have the support assistant on your computer you need to go to the HP website, search for your computer, download and install it, it will tell you everything about your computer.

 

[GA_Boater]

MT's idea about popping the bezel and searching for a tear-apart tutorial has worked for me on every laptop I've owned. Keep track of any screws - teensy-weensy and different sizes.

 

[WIMUSKY]

If you have a loose wire on the screen it is pretty easy to fix, is it just flashing or are you getting off color fading and blinking type behavior? As far as the loose wire thing, you just need to pop the screen bezel, pop the screen and un-plug and re-plug the wires on the screen, do it carefully it is small and be real careful, there is two or three wires behind the bezel that are the wireless adapter antenna. That said, depending on the model, you might have to take the keyboard bezel off as well to get to the screen wiring. Do a search specifically based on your model concerning screen removal. I have done that on several laptop models over the years and usually find a website that either has pictures of the process or a video on the specific model you have. If you don't have the support assistant on your computer you need to go to the HP website, search for your computer, download and install it, it will tell you everything about your computer.

Both, MT. I have th bezel off on the top and both sides. Bottom doesn't want to pop and I don't want to snap it. On the port side I have a white wire coming up from down below and is soldered to some little black thingy. On the starboard side I have black wire soldered to it's own black thingy. At the bow there is some metal piece that has a wire that goes behind the top of the screen. I see 2 screws, 1 at the port corner and 1 starboard. I haven't taken those out to see if the screen will come out, or if there is more screws behind the bottom side of the bezel....

 

[MTboatguy]

Wim, what model of HP Pavilion is it and I will see what I can find for a breakdown on it, I have quite a library for computers as every single person I know asks me to fix their computers let me know the model number exactly and I should be able to find it. It could be a Pavilion g7, but there will also be an exact model number such as DT2215, which you should be able to find on the bottom of the computer, in the battery compartment or even on the box it came in, of course if you had the support assistant that would tell you as well. With HP, there can be dozens of sub models in the line, my G7 has 42 different sub models included in that main line based on options, but with those options, they did change how they go together on some of them.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Here it is :

http://youtu.be/L3qY7WvplFw

 

[bruceb58]

https://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&dlc=en&docname=c00821536#N656

Update the BIOS if you haven't done so.

 

[WIMUSKY]

Thanks Bruce. Yep, my battery is weak. Shot after 1 year...

MT, I had overlooked HP Support Assistant. It was hiding and didn't really stand out in programs.........

Would Best Buy have a battery?

 

[GA_Boater]

BB has a lot of HP batteries listed, Musky.

Have you tried popping the battery out and running off the charger?

 

[MTboatguy]

Thanks Bruce. Yep, my battery is weak. Shot after 1 year...

MT, I had overlooked HP Support Assistant. It was hiding and didn't really stand out in programs.........

Would Best Buy have a battery?

I would, I just had to replace mine back in Nov, it would no longer charge, but I went through a period of time, it would only charge half way, then a quarter of the way and then finally no charging at all, it took a period of about 6 months for it to finally get to the point it would no longer charge, I picked up a battery from a guy on ebay that sells HP branded batteries that have a full HP warranty on them for a pretty good price, Batteries Plus wanted over a hundred buck for one, The last few batteries I have had to buy for Laptops have come off ebay, I have found them to be as good as what I can buy from the manufacture. By the way, you should put the battery in, get it fully charged, then run your computer off the charger without the battery in it while at home if possible, that will increase the battery life when you have to travel or take the computer off the charger.

 

[WIMUSKY]

I'm running it now just on AC. I went to BB, I need a Series# which I can't find. I can find the Serial#, Model# and Product#.

 

[MTboatguy]

I'm running it now just on AC. I went to BB, I need a Series# which I can't find. I can find the Serial#, Model# and Product#.

Wim, you should be able to find that information by running the HP support assistant, or you can visit this page at HP and they will show you the various locations that information is located.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?cc=us&lc=en&docname=c00033108