Battery life

I have an Acer Aspire One Netbook which I have had for nearly a year. The battery now only stays charged for a maximum of 1 hour. My netbook is only used when we are away from home, so the battery shouldnt need replacing. I have made sure that I have tried discharging completely before re-charging but this has not made any difference. I thought the battery should stay charged for up to 3 hours - it used to last for a longer period than an hour. Should I go back to Currys as it is still under guarantee or is 1 hour the usual battery timescale? Would appreciate any advice on this one please. Many thanks.

 

Hi,

Well there is an application I use for these type of cases. What it does is it 'resets' the 'charging time counter'. Also it helps you do some other cool stuff too. Like it enhances and enlarges the battery's operation time, it speeds up the startup and the shutdown. The app is called: 'Battery Doubler 1.2.1'. It also comes bundled with other apps that help you to accelerate the performance of the machine too. You can find it here: http://www.dachshundsoftware.com/index.html

To be honest I've used it in my Acer Aspire One and I did notice some good results. Even do you might whant to try it yourself. Now another piece of advise I can give you is: When using it, do let the ventilation holes uncovered, located underneath the lap, to have enough space to breath or else the fan will double it's speed making it use more energy. Now you can also take advantage of the warranty but I suggest you use it when you really need it.

So let me know how it goes. Be seeing you now!

 

Yup, that's about all I get. Maybe even a little less. Battery life is el-sucko.

 

Wow for the price of "Battery Doubler" you can almost purchase a new 6 cell battery. It sounds like it does some of the things that you can do via Power Management. Sometimes not using a battery to it's full capabilities is more harmful than just using it as a UPS. I bought a 6 cell from Dealextreme for $40 US with free postage. I am currently in the process of testing it's longevity under heavy use.

You can also get more info on battery types and their characteristics as well as suggestion on battery friendly practices at the link below.

http://batteryuniversity.com/

 

I've done this several times myself. And highly recommend it. However doing it once to rejuivinate a battery isn't going to help. I do it once a month to ensure the battery is completely depleted, but in your case you're trying to get more lifespan out of your rig. You'll want to do it a few times. See how many times you can completely deplete it in a day. I was lucky enough that when I bought my first AAO they supplied me with the much larger 5200mah battery and I'm proud to say that by completely depleting it once a month, it's only lost about half an hour to an hour's charge. I'll get at least 4 hours out of it. That's running Windows 7 with a mobile phone constantly tethered via USB for 3G internet. (keep in mind that it's also keeping the mobile phone charged during this time)

If you want to completely deplete your battery, you're going to have to make sure that Windows isn't automatically shutting down at any %. You want the battery so flat that it cannot, under it's own steam, even light up the power light.