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Netbook review forum (I’m sure some of you read over there) has a very good read on batteries. Some tips are to not leave the battery installed when running off AC. Store battery at 40-50% in a cold climate also helps. Also, do not run the battery calibrator in the BIOS often. Once in a blue moon is ok, but having it drain your battery completely like that is actually bad for current Lion batteries.
In the end don’t sweat it to much. It’s going to happen eventually, anything you do will only prolong that slightly.
Battery is going to die over time regardless. If you are looking at the battery wear make sure to look at current capacity vs. the actual capacity the nc10 was supposed to come with (5200 mAh I believe) as opposed to what it says was the max of the battery. They often have more in the battery than it should be as they know it will deteriorate over time…
I own the NC10 SE which I bought brand new four days ago. Using battstat (v.0.98), here are my numbers:
Capacity: 61236 mWh (of 66906)
Wear: 8%I will be recalibrating my battery from BIOS, and i will see if there is any difference.
My 2 year-old gateway laptop shows a mere 1% wear using the same program. This will be interesting.Battery wear has been discussed several times already but one thing you should definitely NOT be doing is fully cycling the battery if not absolutely necessary, it’s one of the best ways there is to kill it prematurely.
One thread is here
http://www.sammymobile.com/plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?2532.80#post_17521
and I repeat my post to that thread below. FWIW my figures are exactly the same today as they were then.
***
I understand why some people are paranoid about battery life but there are a couple of misconceptions I think need clearing up.
Lithium Ion batteries are nothing like the nicads many are used to and need radically different care. The most important thing to remember is that they DO NOT need a few charge cycles to get the best out of them nor regular discharging except for the occasional full cycle to recalibrate the internal measuring system, say once every month or 2, otherwise it is one of the worst things you can do with them.
Lion batteries are intrinsically a limited life product and the life of a new battery can be measured in number of charge cycles. Lets say for argument that the life is 100 full cycles, if you fully discharge then recharge once a day then in 100 days your battery would be exhausted. If on the other hand you only discharged 10% each day and then topped up you could do this for 1000 days, and pro rata. For this reason it is best to continually top them up, again something you are specifically advised against with nicads.
As regards measurement I recommend Everest Ultimate 5.0 (not the FREE home version) http://www.lavalys.com/ which shows:
1. The Design Capacity
2. The Full charge capacity (not necessarily the same as the design)
3. The current capacity in mWh & %
4. The wear level
5. The voltageMy numbers are:
57720
55500
55500 (100%)
3%
12531mVThe more astute may notice that my wear level in terms of design capacity against Full Charge is closer to 5% then the 3% reported so I’m unsure where that number has come from, and this is after only 6 days of use, but I’m not losing any sleep over it.
The nature of Lion batteries leads to a particular problem when it comes to purchasing replacements. Unless the battery is still in production then what you buy as ‘new’ may in fact be as old as the original and therefore will have suffered a degree of natural deterioration which can vary enormously depending on the storage conditions so unless you actually need 12 hours and a second battery to ensure it it is futile buying one to store for later use.
In the case of my other laptop, an Acer Ferrari, which is now nearly 4 years old and the battery down to about 1/3 original capacity, I have tried ‘new’ batteries from 3 different reputable sources and none of them came in at above 50% so went straight back. I am resigned now to using it on mains which in truth is not such a problem, especially as I have the NC 10 !
There is an interesting article on the topic here
7.7%
Have had it less than a week, used it maybe a total of 10 hrs, fully charged it two or three times (probably too early).Yikes!
-Ricardo
yup KiNel you are right I am more than aware that Li-ion batterys should not be deep cycled. The thing is battery recalibration cannot harm the battery because of overdischarge circuit that stops the battery’s current when a certain voltage is read. The problem will arise if one drains the battery to a point where the system shuts off and forgets to charge the battery for a while. Then the battery will definately overdischarge below the threshold voltage and cause premature wear. My NC10 SE turned off after battery calibration and I am now charging the battery. I will see if this changes anything in the readings from battstat.
After the battery recalibration from BIOS and a full recharge, here are my readings from battstat:
Capacity: 62370 mWh (of 66906)
Wear: 6%a 2% difference before and after.
[quote1238856091=KiNeL]
Battery wear has been discussed several times already but one thing you should definitely NOT be doing is fully cycling the battery if not absolutely necessary, it’s one of the best ways there is to kill it prematurely.One thread is here
http://www.sammymobile.com/plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?2532.80#post_17521
and I repeat my post to that thread below. FWIW my figures are exactly the same today as they were then.
***
I understand why some people are paranoid about battery life but there are a couple of misconceptions I think need clearing up.
Lithium Ion batteries are nothing like the nicads many are used to and need radically different care. The most important thing to remember is that they DO NOT need a few charge cycles to get the best out of them nor regular discharging except for the occasional full cycle to recalibrate the internal measuring system, say once every month or 2, otherwise it is one of the worst things you can do with them.
Lion batteries are intrinsically a limited life product and the life of a new battery can be measured in number of charge cycles. Lets say for argument that the life is 100 full cycles, if you fully discharge then recharge once a day then in 100 days your battery would be exhausted. If on the other hand you only discharged 10% each day and then topped up you could do this for 1000 days, and pro rata. For this reason it is best to continually top them up, again something you are specifically advised against with nicads.
As regards measurement I recommend Everest Ultimate 5.0 (not the FREE home version) http://www.lavalys.com/ which shows:
1. The Design Capacity
2. The Full charge capacity (not necessarily the same as the design)
3. The current capacity in mWh & %
4. The wear level
5. The voltageMy numbers are:
57720
55500
55500 (100%)
3%
12531mVThe more astute may notice that my wear level in terms of design capacity against Full Charge is closer to 5% then the 3% reported so I’m unsure where that number has come from, and this is after only 6 days of use, but I’m not losing any sleep over it.
The nature of Lion batteries leads to a particular problem when it comes to purchasing replacements. Unless the battery is still in production then what you buy as ‘new’ may in fact be as old as the original and therefore will have suffered a degree of natural deterioration which can vary enormously depending on the storage conditions so unless you actually need 12 hours and a second battery to ensure it it is futile buying one to store for later use.
In the case of my other laptop, an Acer Ferrari, which is now nearly 4 years old and the battery down to about 1/3 original capacity, I have tried ‘new’ batteries from 3 different reputable sources and none of them came in at above 50% so went straight back. I am resigned now to using it on mains which in truth is not such a problem, especially as I have the NC 10 !
There is an interesting article on the topic here
[/quote1238856091]
hey we’re in the same bot. an nc10 and and an acer ferrari. same numbers same gadgets.Hey everyone.
Had my NC10 for just over 1 month. Really happy with it, but………………
Is there any reason why it wont charge to 100% on the battery meter? It used to charge to 100% when i first purchased, then i would unplug it and run on batt until windows told me to charge, simple.
Now, it will only charge to 97% on the battery meter, 98% if im lucky.
Things like this really bug me! Can anybody help with this?
I don’t get it… The battery wear should indicate how much of the battery has been completely used out and is no longer available for normal operation… the more I use the battery, the battery wear will increase, right?
I bought my NC10 on the 10th of December 2008. From that time I use my laptop on battery daily for 4-5 hours (without weekends :-))
The battery is by then discharged to ~35%, I never discharged it completely…. and after all this the BattStat shows 1% wear, like on the day I bought it. How’s that possible?Of course this is possible – you are one of the lucky ones to get a really good battery. Congrats! 🙂
[quote1238929139=ea66]
I don’t get it… The battery wear should indicate how much of the battery has been completely used out and is no longer available for normal operation… the more I use the battery, the battery wear will increase, right?I bought my NC10 on the 10th of December 2008. From that time I use my laptop on battery daily for 4-5 hours (without weekends :-))
The battery is by then discharged to ~35%, I never discharged it completely…. and after all this the BattStat shows 1% wear, like on the day I bought it. How’s that possible?
[/quote1238929139][quote1239287039=ea66]
I don’t get it… The battery wear should indicate how much of the battery has been completely used out and is no longer available for normal operation… the more I use the battery, the battery wear will increase, right?I bought my NC10 on the 10th of December 2008. From that time I use my laptop on battery daily for 4-5 hours (without weekends :-))
The battery is by then discharged to ~35%, I never discharged it completely…. and after all this the BattStat shows 1% wear, like on the day I bought it. How’s that possible?
[/quote1239287039]what a lucky man…
I just started using my NC10SE yesterday, and after installing Battery Bar it already stated 6.8% wearing O_o even after finding out the math is based on designed capacity rather the amount stated ON the battery and took that into account, my wearing is still 4.8%…….
4.8% ON THE FIRST DAY!!!specs
designed cap: 6027mAh
cap stated on battery: 5900mAh
full-charged cap: 5618mAh
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