Battery On Laptop Only Charging To 78% - Help!!

[moggie 939]

On my Samsung 4GB Netbook (after recently altering the bios to improve everything and make it work faster) when I charge it on the mains whatever time I charge it for it still only shows 78% full when I switch it back on.

Some time ago I solved the problem by going into F2 and boot and re-calibrating the battery. However this time when I did that the re-calibration 'line' from 100% down to empty only started at 78% so nothing changes!

Have I done something wrong in the calibration? It says the battery must be completely charged and then completely discharged for it to work - but I can't do that!

Thanks all

[Old_Geezer]

Have you tried a different charger ? Or different battery ?

Need to work out where the issue lies.

[moggie 939]

Have tried my spare charger - no different and a new battery for my model costs over £65!

[Old_Geezer]

If the charger is the original Samsung it suggests to me a battery fault so you may be stuck replacing it at some stage anyway. If you have a friend who has the same notebook maybe they'll let you try with theirs.

Is it under warranty ? Might be worth asking the workshop to take a gander at it anyway. Give you an opinion.

[newbie99]

There is a setting in the power management software. This is a feature samsung has implemented to avoid over charging. It's not faulty. You can have the option to charge to 100% or 80%. If you leave your charger on all the time I suggest set it at 80% charge. which means your current setting us correct.

[moggie 939]

Thanks both.
Newbie99 you are correct. I checked this by going into boot - advance- and then there was a choice as you said to enable or disable this.

Whatever I did it still would not charge above 79%.. The battery is at least 2 years old or maybe more as I purchased the netbook from a Samsung dealer as refurbished by them.

This particular battery is over £60 new but have located a genuine Samsung replacement for £39 so will see how that goes!

[newbie99]

I will check on my Samsung and will get back soon to you. Don't do anything yet.

[newbie99]

Hi Moggie 939;

Your Samsung should have an application call "Easy Settings". Mine is installed as a short cut on the desktop.

When you run this application it allows you to set the "Battery Life Extender" to on/off. When you set it to on, it will charge to 80%, if set to off - it will start charging to 100%.

Please report back if you're still stuck....

Also have a read of this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/samsung-series-7-weird-battery-issue.695611/

Good luck.

[moggie 939]

Thanks newbie....

Have found what you said and Samsung told me that if I get a new battery I should set it to 80% to extend it's life