Battery doesnt charge past 61%

Question

I just noticed that when I unplug the battery, conky reports that the battery is draining at 61%.  I can let it drain and when I plug it back in it reports its charging, but it stops once it gets to 60-61% it stops charging. whats the deal here? is it just conky reporting wrong or is it the battery?

Answer 1

How old is your laptop?
From wikipedia:
A unique drawback of the Li-ion battery is that its life span is dependent upon aging from time of manufacturing (shelf life) regardless of whether it was charged, and not just on the number of charge/discharge cycles. So an older battery will not last as long as a new battery due solely to its age, unlike other batteries. This drawback is not widely publicised.
At a 100% charge level, a typical Li-ion laptop battery that is full most of the time at 25 degrees Celsius or 77 degrees Fahrenheit will irreversibly lose approximately 20% capacity per year. However, a battery stored inside a poorly ventilated laptop may be subject to a prolonged exposure to much higher temperatures than 25 °C, which will significantly shorten its life. The capacity loss begins from the time the battery was manufactured, and occurs even when the battery is unused. Different storage temperatures produce different loss results: 6% loss at 0 °C (32 °F), 20% at 25 °C (77 °F), and 35% at 40 °C (104 °F). When stored at 40% - 60% charge level, these figures are reduced to 2%, 4%, 15% at 0, 25 and 40 degrees Celsius respectively.
Like MikyMaus said, if you refresh, the full indicator will switch the 100% (or full state) from the original 100% to your current level of 61% .
Last edited by quarks (2007-12-18 12:48:17)