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How to Check the Health of Your Windows Laptop Battery

July 2, 2019

As time goes by, your laptop battery won’t last as long as when it was new. There are several reasons why your power drain increases, but how do you know when you should actually replace the battery? ZDNet has a great post that identifies some key battery statistics you should be aware of. First, you need to install a utility to expose information about your battery. There is a free software application called BatteryInfoView by Nir Sofer that allows easy access to the current status and information about your battery data. The software will work with all Windows versions from Windows 2000 to Windows 10. After you unzip the file, just run the BatteryInfoView executable.

First off, you may be surprised to learn that there are two batteries in your laptop. As an example, I have a built-in LiP battery and a removable Lithium Ion battery. Next check the Number of charge/discharge cycles. If this number is over 500, the battery is getting old. If it is over 800, the battery is likely close to the end of its life and should be ready for replacement. Over 1,000 and the battery is at the end of its life. You should also pay attention to the Full Charged Capacity and Designed Capacity. If the ratio of Full to Designed is less than 80% then it is likely in need of replacement. Fortunately, the Battery Health value does the math and displays the ratio for you.

Using the utility software, you won’t have any excuse for knowing when to replace your Windows laptop battery.

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