Laptop Charging In Desktop Mode

[Murray99]

The power meter icon has been showing 51% (Plugged In, Not Charging) for the last few days that I've been running on the charger. I ran the battery test and it says the battery is in good shape (was replaced less than a year ago) and confirms the 51%.

I want to get the battery to 100% so I don't have to be plugged in all the time while on travel. My Dell laptop has the option of running in desktop mode where the charging is controlled to extend the battery life when running in desktop mode (on the charger almost all the time). In this mode it seems to run between 85% and 100% charge, cycling only as needed. It also has the option to fully charge the battery. I can't find anything like this on this laptop. How can I get the battery to fully charge? Where do I find the settings to control the charging mode?

Computer is a G62-143CL running Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit.

[erico]

If your notebook is, as I suspect, more than 3 years old, the highest likelihood is that the 100% capacity has been degraded down to what you are seeing.

YOu should consider replacing the battery with a new one.

You can calibrate the battery by using the tune up application that is part of the HP suypport Assistant. That will make the actual 51% the full value and you will again see 100% but it will not give you the mobile battery time you used to have.

See the following HP web document for the steps to follow for calibrating the battery manually.

http://support.hp.com/za-en/document/c00821536

[Murray99]

As noted in my original post, the battery is less than a year old. Also, the battery check software shows the battery capacity to be slightly more than the specified value. Here is the output from the battery test. I get slightly different numbers for the remaining capacity but it always seems to stick at about 51%. Note that the terminal voltage is slightly higher than design which seems odd to me.

[erico]

Ok. I did miss that critical bit of information. It happens.

RThe battery should be under warranty if replaced less than a year ago.

Was it a warranty replacement from HP?

If not from HP, contact the vendor you purchased it from.

If it was received from HP as a warranrty replacement, then contact HP.

[Murray99]

Just wrote a long post with questions and info but got "authentification failed" when I submitted it so will give up on HP and its forums for now! 😞  May try again later.

[Murray99 · Accepted solution]

Well, so much for that! I did the BIOS update, actually a re-install since it was the same ID and number, and now I have a battery at 100%! Cocktail hour, more later.

[erico]

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@Murray99 wrote:

Well, so much for that! I did the BIOS update, actually a re-install since it was the same ID and number, and now I have a battery at 100%! Cocktail hour, more later.

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That is interesting.  We have seen that on a few other HP BIOS updates. None of us know why HP does that on occasion.

So the issue may have been a BIOS bug causing the bogus 51% charge reading.

I will bring that to the attention of HP internally.

What is the BIOS update softpaq number of the update that you applied? 

You can use the HP Support Assistant to see which updates have been applied.

[Murray99]

I couldn't find a list of past HP updates in the Support Assistant. It did give access to Windows updates but not the HP drivers updates.  Below is the line from the Update list for my computer. As I recall, there was a ? number 1425 associated with it. This was exactly the same identifiers as what was already in my computer. Lucky I decided to install it even if it was the same.

HP Notebook System BIOS Update (Intel Processors)  F.37 Rev. A   6.6 MB   Oct 11, 2014

I would still like to get software like that on my Dell that lets me set up extended life and desktop charging modes since I still have two HP computers.

Please also tell HP that having to install each driver separately rather than all at once is very annoying. I realize that some updates need reboots but surely a semi-talented software engineer could come up with the code to sort that out. They should buy a Dell computer to see how it should be done!

[erico]

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@Murray99 wrote:

I couldn't find a list of past HP updates in the Support Assistant. It did give access to Windows updates but not the HP drivers updates.  Below is the line from the Update list for my computer. As I recall, there was a ? number 1425 associated with it. This was exactly the same identifiers as what was already in my computer. Lucky I decided to install it even if it was the same.

HP Notebook System BIOS Update (Intel Processors)  F.37 Rev. A   6.6 MB   Oct 11, 2014

I would still like to get software like that on my Dell that lets me set up extended life and desktop charging modes since I still have two HP computers.

Please also tell HP that having to install each driver separately rather than all at once is very annoying. I realize that some updates need reboots but surely a semi-talented software engineer could come up with the code to sort that out. They should buy a Dell computer to see how it should be done!

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Please also tell HP that having to install each driver separately rather than all at once is very annoying. 

Turning off automatic updates is the simplest solution  to that. That way you can make the decision on what to update on your own. 

[Murray99]

I still have to install each update separately! I don't have HP automatic updates active, only Windows updates(and they update in a group when I select them.)