Your laptop battery may be failing — don't miss this

If your laptop's battery doesn't hold a charge as well as it used to, it's worth periodically monitoring its condition to spot signs of wear and tear in time. This can prevent problems when you need the device but are far from an outlet.

This was reported by ZDNET.

Laptop battery power

Have you noticed that your laptop's battery is running low? Windows 11 has a built-in report that provides insight into your laptop's battery health and indicates whether a replacement is necessary. Run a report to check your battery's overall health and determine if it's time for a replacement.

Here's how to check your battery health in Windows 11:

• First, in the Windows search bar, type powershell and press Enter.
• Second, in the black text box that appears, type: powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\battery-report.html" and press Enter.

The device will then send the HTML document containing the battery life report to the C:\ folder. Navigate to the folder and double-click it to open the report in a browser.

The first figure is the design capacity, which refers to the power the battery could deliver when it was brand new, measured in mWh (milliwatt hours). This figure measures energy, not charge.

Next, check the metric below. Full Charge Capacity shows the battery's current capacity (also in mAh). The difference between the two is a useful indicator of your battery's overall health. If the second number is significantly lower, then your battery's capacity has decreased significantly since the notebook was released.

A loss of 20% capacity when fully charged usually warrants replacement. However, this is not a hard and fast rule — you could be at this level and still find that your laptop battery is working fine.

Another key indicator is the cycle count, which is the number of times you have used 100% of the battery capacity. This number records how many times you have used 100% of the battery's capacity. For instance, if you have a 60,000-mAh battery, one cycle means that 60,000 mAh of energy has flowed out of the battery. Most consumer laptop batteries are designed to last for about 500 discharge/charge cycles over their lifetime. After that, you will likely notice a 20% loss of capacity. However, how quickly this happens depends on your usage habits.

The good news is that if you just need a battery replacement, you don't have to buy a new laptop. Most major laptop manufacturers, such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo, design their laptops with replaceable batteries. You can replace the battery yourself, or you can pay a service repair firm or technician to do it for you. However, these workshops only guarantee the successful installation of the battery, not its further service life.

Read more:

• Is constant charging killing your laptop battery?
• Battery of the future — scientists develop a breakthrough cell
• Laptop battery drains fast — 5 habits you need to break