Calibration of battery

[Crispywine]

Hi,

Mu Hp Assistant says I have to Calibrate my Battery, I do so. But it still says I have to calibrate my battery. 

What do I do? Why does it say that in the first place

Sincerly 

Patrik

[sandytechy20 · Accepted solution]

@Crispywine 

Welcome to the HP support community.

I understand that you are trying to calibrate the battery, I am glad to assist you.

Follow the steps mention under "Calibrate the battery manually" in this HP document to fix the issue:- Click here

Keep me posted.

If this helps, please mark the public post as an accepted solution so that it benefits several others.

Cheers.

[PortlandiaIT]

Most of the steps listed here and in the various replies are not correct.

To understand what is really going on you have to first understand that there are 2 kinds of laptop batteries on the market:

The first is a "manufacturer specific" battery that is designed to fit perfectly in your laptop, supply the correct power, and all of that, and has a battery management chip in the battery that communicates with the laptop BIOS and reports state of charge of the battery to the laptop BIOS.   This is what comes in the laptop when you buy it.  It is going to have HP's logo on it.

The second is a "generic battery" that is ALSO designed to fit perfectly in your laptop, supply the correct power, and all of that, and has a battery management chip in the battery that DOES NOT communicate with the laptop BIOS and report state of charge.  These are typically used as replacement batteries because they are VASTLY cheaper.   (note that ALL laptop battery packs have a battery management chip in them, for safety, this chip prevents the batteries from being overcharged and exploding and it also prevents the batteries from being drained to complete zero since doing that to Lithium Ion batteries will ruin them)

If you boot the laptop into UEFI Diagnostics, and go into the tests (F2) and do a check battery, then go into battery statistics, the generic batteries will generally report a bogus serial number like 123456 and no manufacturer and will say State of Charge is unavailable.  If State of Charge is available, you CAN calibrate the battery.

The BIOS battery calibration utility cannot work with the generic batteries.  When you run it, all that it will do is keep the laptop turned on until the battery is drained to zero then turn off the laptop.  When you then charge the laptop and boot the system later, the diagnostics will just say the battery isn't calibrated.

With the generic batteries the way that the laptop knows if the battery is charged or not is by when the laptop is plugged into the power adapter, the battery is drawing power or not.  If the battery management chip knows the battery is discharged it will draw power from the adapter.  You will then see an orange light turn on next to where the adapter is plugged into the laptop.

What Microsoft's battery icon and battery management software does to display state of charge on batteries is to first attempt to query State of Charge of the battery from the battery management chip.  If that fails because the battery is generic, it then queries the laptop BIOS to see if the AC adapter is plugged in, and if it is, if the orange light is on on the laptop/battery is drawing power from the adapter.   If the battery is NOT drawing power  (orange light is off) then it will assume the battery is at 100% of charge.

If you boot your laptop and the battery charging light is off, AND the Microsoft battery icon says the battery is not 100% charge, and the battery is generic,  (which you should already know by attempting to check state of charge from the BIOS) THEN go ahead and follow the advice to uninstall the Microsoft ACPI battery management driver, then shutdown and reboot.  On reboot Windows will reinstall battery management, reset all variables, and show the battery fully charged.

With a generic battery when the BIOS reports that the ac adapter is unplugged, the Microsoft battery management driver knows the battery is discharging so it starts timing it.  When the generic battery management chip reports that the battery pack is completely discharged and that the pack will be shut off in 30 seconds or whatever, then the battery management driver knows how long the battery will last and then the next time the laptop is on battery, it can compute the percentage state of charge.  It doesn't have to do this with the manufacturer batteries since those DO report state of charge.

All of this works fine with GOOD batteries.  The problem is that people hate the idea that their laptop batteries wear out.

A battery calibration should ONLY be done ONCE in a batterie's life - when a brand new battery is installed.  And there is no difference between a "manual" calibration where you just run the laptop on diagnostics until the battery is empty, and a "battery calibration" where the calibration program just keeps the laptop on until the battery is empty, or merely using the laptop off adapter until the new battery is mostly discharged then running the calibration routine until it's completely discharged.  Drawing a laptop battery down to nothing is very very hard on the battery.

Laptop batteries typically do not last more than 3 years at best.  The most optimal way to treat the battery is as follows:  When you put a new battery in the laptop, let it fully charged, then for the first 2-3 times you use it on battery you let it get down to 8% then put it back on the charger until it's 100%.  After that, run calibration or do the trick with uninstalling/reinstalling the driver.  Then just use it normally.  Eventually even if you don't remove and reinstall the Microsoft driver, the battery icon will properly report state of charge.  Once it appears to be working right then note how long the laptop will run on battery.  Let's assume 4 hours with the screen dimmed.

Now, if you start noting in the next year or two that the battery length of time it keeps the laptop going gets shorter, know that this is normal.

As you approach the 3 year mark, if you start noticing that the time the battery keeps the laptop going gets very short, then know the battery is worn out and buy a replacement.

DO NOT assume that running a calibration on a used battery is going to magically extend it's length.  It will not.  Once a battery is worn out, it's worn out.  When it can only keep the laptop going for 15 minutes, or when the percentage readings off the battery icon are nonsensical (such as, they display 100% charged while the power supply is plugged in then drop to nothing when the power supply is unplugged) then the battery is used up.  Replace it.

There is no real difference in lifespan between a generic battery designed for your laptop and the more expensive manufacturer-specific battery.  One is not safer than the other and after use the battery icon percentage is going to work just as well for either.  The main difference is the generic won't ever show as calibrated.  If you are the type who absolutely must squeeze as much time as possible from your laptop off adapter, then you might get better accuracy with the manufacturer battery when the battery is down to 20% left, but be aware that drawing any battery down to zero or just a few percent on a regular basis will wear it out much faster.

Batteries are best when used in situations where they are kept plugged into the charger most of the time and when used off charger, are not drawn down past 8%, and then immediately recharged to 100%.  Laptop batteries need a few deep discharges down to 8% every once in a while but the rest of the time a shallow discharge will make them last the longest.  And the longer a battery is left discharged the more damage is done to it.

[bear_doing]

hello, im having a problem in calibration. my hp support assistant keep notifying me that i need to calibrate my battery but i already did that like twice. first calibrating it by draining. I follow the steps on HP youtube channel but my hp support assistant still says that Battery Calibration needed, I follow the verify calibration tutorial on Hp support assistant which says that plug the laptop up to 100% and keep plugging it up to 3 hours. I did that and running a Battery Calibration process while the Ac adapter is connected for almost 4 hours because im waiting for the results. The results are Component Test: PASSED and says that Battery Check: Primary - Calibration Required (20) Primary: Logic State - Calibration Required (20), Charge State - Not Available. and I exit and unplugged it from Ac Adapter. then After opening my Hp support Assistant, it still says that Battery Calibration is needed Im so upset right now. Then I chat Hp support assistant, and they said that I need to calibrate my battery three times to see the results like whaaat??? three times to calibrate??? and then I check the results of full and design capacity and it decreases to 1% then I also check the results using command prompt. and the design and full charge capacity are still the same unlike the results in Hp support assistant. like what should I do? I did the Calibration process twice and still Hp support assistant says that BATTERY CALIBRATION NEEDED??? 

PLEASE REPLY TO ME... I NEED YOUR HELP...

PS: SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH GRAMMAR, HOPING THAT YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THANK YOU!