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Thread: Laptop draining the battery quickly.

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    Default Laptop draining the battery quickly.

    I have a Toshiba Satellite (L500) now a few years old that my Wife first used and then my Son until he bought a 'smartphone' so I grabbed it the other day to use and saw the battery was fairly low and I put it down to not being used as before and hadnt been charged.
    However when he saw me using it he made the comment that the battery seemed to be going flat quickly so I decided to buy a new one thinking the other was getting old.
    The new one is a 5200mAH where the old one was a 3620mAH so I plugged it into the L/top and following the instructions, put it on charge all night.
    The next day I turned the L/Top on to discharge the battery as instructed and just left it with the Desktop showing, I was surprised to see it had lost capacity (from 100% to 10%) in what I thought was a very short time.

    I just tried it on its own power after being on Charge all day and reading 99% when the mains were disconnected to read 24% after barely an hour with just the desktop showing.
    It is online but that shoudnt be drawing too much power I wouldnt have thought so now I am asking for any ideas of why it seems to be using up so much power please?
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!



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    did u change power setting so it sleeps after 10 min?
    that may help
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    Did you buy the new battery from a reputable vendor? Some eBay ones are pretty poor quality.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gordon_s1942 View Post
    ..... I was surprised to see it had lost capacity (from 100% to 10%) in what I thought was a very short time.

    I just tried it on its own power after being on Charge all day and reading 99% when the mains were disconnected to read 24% after barely an hour with just the desktop showing.
    It is online but that shoudnt be drawing too much power I wouldnt have thought so now I am asking for any ideas of why it seems to be using up so much power please?
    I assume that when you say "It is online" you are referring to wireless networking rather than a wired LAN.

    Wireless networking can add an extra 3 to 8 watts to power consumption, so turn it off when not actually wishing to go on-line.

    Also, turn the screen brightness down, as operating at full brightness can add an extra 4 to 5 watts to power consumption (depending on screen size).

    For additional information see and others (via duckduckgo, google etc.).

    Incidentally, we refer to current drain/drawing current in amps and we refer to power consumption/consumed in watts.
    Last edited by tristen; 21-10-16 at 08:07 PM.

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    All the above comments are relevant.

    Also, is the screen LCD or LED?

    LCD with flouro backlighting are very power hungry.

    All new batteries need several cycles to reach maximum capacity.

    I'm guessing you only bought a 6-cell replacement battery, and possibly a cheap one, so 2 hours is likely the best you'll get out of one anyway.

    Higher capacity 12-cell batteries of up to 9600mAh are available.

    Also, there may be a lot of programs/apps running in the background.

    Turning unneccessary background apps off will help conserve power.

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    Thanks all for the replies and I can see possible problems.
    Firstly it is cheap $25 and a 6 cell, I didnt know they made any others as I didnt see those when I first googled for a replacement.
    I think its an LCD screen and I did open the Task Master to see what was running but I couldnt see anything other than Systems.

    No doubt someone who knows what their doing could find things running I know nothing about and give it going over too most likely wouldnt hurt.

    I dont need the portability of the battery but its handy having it if needed.
    I stand unequivicably behind everything I say , I just dont ever remember saying it !!

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    I have purchased several laptop batteries from this mob in Australia and found them pretty good. At $50 they are way cheaper than genuine batteries and they offer a 400 day warranty where they even pay the postage so can't go wrong really.

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  • 10-11-16, 05:20 PM


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