Types of batteries in Laptops
Following are the major categories of the batteries being used in laptops nowadays:
Lithium-Ion
This battery type is well known and used widely in laptops, mobile phones, tablets, cameras. Lithium-ion batteries depend on lithium compounds, which release ions of Lithium to charge and discharge the battery. Lithium-ion moves from positive to the negative electrode and negative to positive electrodes while discharging.
Nickel Cadmium
In the early 2000s, Nickel Cadmium batteries ruled the era, but they faced tough competition with the Lithium-Ion category after that. Their core functionality of producing high current with low internal resistance makes them advantageous for wireless phones, remote-controlled toys, and portable electronic items. Nickel Cadmium batteries use Nickel-Oxide-HydroOxide (NiOOH) as a positive electrode, and on the negative side, Cadmium is used.
Nickel Metal Hydride
The electrode formation is almost the same as Nickel Cadmium: NiOOH as a positive electrode, and instead of Cadmium, it uses an alloy as the negative electrode. Initially, when the automobile industry showed revolution in electric vehicle categories, Nickel Metal Hydride was used in the pioneer variants: but now they are being replaced by Lithium-Ion Category.
How to explore laptop battery life in Windows
As every small thing or equipment needs care, likewise battery care is necessary too. The main reason behind the frequent battery failures is a misuse of batteries; if you do not care for them, they will stop responding. Motivated by this importance, we will enlist some methods to analyze laptop battery life.
Checking laptop battery life using Windows PowerShell
The first and recommended way to check the status of your battery is by using a windows power shell. By this, you can create a battery report and monitor the battery performance, health, and other optimizing factors.
Open windows power shell by right-clicking on the “start” icon on the taskbar, or you can use the windows-key + X keyboard shortcut to open the “start” menu:
Write the following command in “Windows PowerShell (Admin)“:
This command will generate a report in the “C” drive; you can change the path if you want this report on any other drive of your PC.
The generated report contains the following sections:
- Installed Batteries
- Recent usage
- Usage history
- Battery capacity history
- Battery life estimates
Now, we will explain each of the above sections:
Installed Batteries
This section of the report shows the number of installed batteries on the system; their category, as in this case it is “LIon,” which shows the battery belongs to “Lithium-Ion“; and the maximum charging capacity of the battery.
Recent usage
The second section of this report describes the recent three days of information on the battery. Five columns shows:
START TIME: The first column shows the date and time of the current session when it was started.
STATE: This column represents the state of the PC; there are two states mentioned in the field, “Active” and “Suspended“. “Active” condition means that when the machine screen was ON and “Suspended” shows when the machine was on sleep or powered OFF.
SOURCE: The third column described the source type when the laptop was in “Active STATE“.
CAPACITY REMAINING: This column describes the major capacity of the battery in each “STATE” of the machine. The remaining power is shown here in two categories: Percentage (%) of the battery remaining and remaining Electric Energy(mWH) during each session.
One may check it from a different angle: for instance, the last two columns from the above image are replaced with; “DURATION” and “ENERGY DRAINED“, the first one shows for how much time the laptop uses battery power, and the second represents the percentage and electric energy used when the computer was using battery power.
Usage history
This portion of the report represents the usage of batteries for a long duration (more than a year). It consists of three columns:
PERIOD: Each cell of this column represents the week selected to analyze the time during which the state of the laptop was ON.
BATTERY DURATION: This column showed the time duration (over the week) when a laptop was battery powered.
AC DURATION: The last column of this section represented the time duration when the machine was being used on power supplied from an external source.
Battery capacity history
It shows the status of “DESIGN CAPACITY” and “FULL CHARGE CAPACITY” each week over more than one year. This section can quickly determine the battery’s health by monitoring the two capacities for an extended period.
Battery life estimates
This section of the battery report concludes that for how long your laptop will function on battery. The provided detail also spans more than one year.
Checking laptop battery life using Third-Party Tools
In contrast to the built-in optimizer, different tools also help to examine the battery of laptops. Few famous and easy to use software’s are mentioned below:
Battery Optimizer
This tool helps you to monitor battery performance; it shows:
The “Battery Health” and how much time the battery will take to discharge completely.
You can run a “Diagnostic Test” to check if there are any problems with your battery, as shown in the above demonstration. You can “Monitor” your battery performance.
BatteryMon
This battery monitor tool shows detailed information and a graphical representation related to the battery: it shows:
Power source: Source means either it would be a battery or the direct power supply.
%life left: This cell shows how much battery percentage is left which can be discharged.
Time Remaining: As the name depicts clearly, it will tell the time remaining to full battery discharge.
As shown in the image below, there are many other factors related to the battery, such as “Total Time“, “Time on Battery“, “Discharge Rate,” and so on.
Conclusion
Battery plays a vital role in daily life and is a revolutionary act in this technologically modern era. Laptops are the key stakeholders when battery applications come to computing devices. Suppose the battery performance is not monitored continuously or not used carefully. In that case, the battery may act up or fail earlier than expected.
In this article, we demonstrated in a detailed way how the battery of a laptop could be analyzed in both ways: using built-in “Windows PowerShell” and using different online tools. Moreover, the generated report guides you to check the efficacy of your battery in a detailed manner.
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