With the passage of time, the battery life of the laptop dies. The choice is up to you; if you want to change the laptop or change the battery of the laptop. The death of a laptop’s battery is inevitable. Every time, when you charge your laptop, it charges slightly less than before. A battery with 56,000mWh will provide 52,000mWh in few years with a full charge.
Windows Warn You About Battery Life
After some time, you will notice that your laptop is not longing last as it used to be. Windows do not normally update you about the battery’s life. You notice it yourself when operating hours are reduced with time. When your battery reaches the lowest enough capacity level, you would see a red X appearing on the battery icon.
Windows will warn you about changing your laptop’s battery. Sometimes it comes up with a notification and suddenly shuts down your laptop and it says that there’s a problem with your battery.
Reasons Behind Aging of Battery
Avoid Frequent Full Discharges
Old batteries of NiMH and NiCD used a memory effect, which means they required complete discharge from 100% to 0%. Modern technology uses Lithium-Ion Batteries. They do not use a memory effect. A complete discharge in a lithium-ion battery is bad for it. Shallow discharges are the way to keep the health of the battery in a laptop or any device. Discharge your laptop up to 40-70% before recharging it. Try not to let your battery go under 20%.
A shallow discharge cycle can be like discharge your laptop up to 50% and then recharge it. Don’t leave the battery at 0%. If your battery goes to 0%, then recharge it as soon as possible. Don’t let it stay at 0% for a longer period. If you leave the battery at 0% for a longer period, it will die completely. It will not have the capacity to recharge.
Protect It from Heat and Cold
Heat affects the battery’s capacity of all types of devices. Smartphones heat up when you perform demanding tasks on them, whereas, laptop heats up on overloading of tasks. If you play games on the laptop that require higher performance, then you can increase the battery’s capacity by removing it and plugging the laptop directly with the charger. When you play higher performance games on the laptop, the laptop heats up and affects the battery. In this way, you can save the capacity of the laptop battery.
The cold weather also affects the lifespan of a laptop or any device’s battery. If you are living in a region that has a similar temperature to that of the freezer, do not expose the battery to cold. It will reduce the battery’s life.
Plugging in Your Laptop All the Time
Plugging in your laptop all the time is a controversial thing because Apple disagrees with it. they say that leaving the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro notebooks plugged in all the time decay the battery’s lifespan. You can keep your laptop plugged-in in the only case if your laptop does not heat up because the charger will not overcharge the battery. Allow your laptop to discharge occasionally rather than keeping it full all the time.
If your laptop heats up on keeping it plugged in with a charger all the time, then removing the charger and letting your laptop discharge would be a good option. As mentioned above, heat affects the lifespan of the battery.
Signs That You Should Consider for Changing the Laptop’s Battery
Overheating
The laptop comes with fans that sink the heat of the laptop while performing different tasks. When the laptop is running on battery, the little heat is normal. A laptop produces more heat when the battery is dying, and your laptop starts higher-performance tasks. You might notice it when your laptop gets noisy and the fans work all the time to keep it cool.
A slight warmness is okay but if the heat is burning your lap, then it is the time you should be considering changing the laptop battery. If the body of the laptop is hot and not touchable, then unplug your laptop immediately to avoid further damage.
Failing to Charge
When you plug in your laptop to its charger and there comes a notification that your battery is failing to charge, then it should be a sign that you should be changing your laptop’s battery. There are fair chances, that the adapter or the socket you are using to charge your laptop is faulty. If you are using an external battery, then remove it and check the connection again. If the battery is not charging, then it means that the battery is performing at its lowest capacity.
Short Run Time and Shutdowns
If you are plugging your laptop for recharge more often than before, there are chances that you need a new battery for your laptop. A fully charged laptop with good battery health run for approximately 6 hours. Now the usage of a laptop affects the battery hours. If you are running high-performing programs with more screen brightness, then you will not the 6 hours with a full charge. The reason is that the laptop uses more power to run those programs and it will run out sooner.
If you are listening to the songs or watching videos, there might be a chance that your laptop runs out of battery within a half-hour or hour. It means that there is a fault in the battery. In this case, sometimes the laptop shut off without or with a warning saying there seems to be a problem with the battery. This could be the indication that you should be changing the laptop’s battery.
Options to Consider Rather Than Changing Your Laptop’s Battery
A low battery notification on your laptop makes it worse when you are away from your home or office. For this purpose, you need a solar laptop charger or a solar panel that charges the laptop.
Solar Laptop Charger
If you are on the go and you get a call from your boss. You need to use your laptop to get the work done. If your laptop is performing at a lower battery capacity, then it will run out within few minutes. It will hardly perform for a half-hour or an hour. In this case, you need a solar laptop charger. A solar laptop charger is a portable gadget, that will help you to get the extra juice for your laptop. Solar Laptop Chargers come with variable voltage, capacity, output conditions, etc. You have to choose the right solar laptop charger for your laptop on the go.
Solar Panel
If you want to buy a solar panel to charge your laptop, then you have to consider the solar panel size and output. Measure the power of your laptop. Discharge it fully and recharge it while the wattmeter measures the time and power. When you measure the watt-hours, you need an inverter for charging the laptop.
Verdict
There are plenty of reasons that why your laptop’s battery health dies gradually. You have to take care of the battery’s health so that it does not run out quickly. The longer the battery health, the more the performance will be of the laptop. You will be able to perform different tasks for more working hours. This article will help you to know that when should you replace your laptop battery. There are various signs that you should consider for changing the laptop battery.