• Battery charge gadget for Windows 10. Practical battery indicator for your computer

    To discharge the laptop when offline mode work did not come as a surprise, you need to constantly monitor the battery level. This can be done using the built-in Windows tools or through special utilities.

    Checking the charge level

    To find out the battery charge, just look at the notification area. There should be an icon that demonstrates the status and operating mode - offline or networked. But if it's simple, why do users wonder where to look for information about charging a laptop?

    Sometimes the taskbar icon disappears. It can be returned through the control panel, but there are other ways to find out the charge level. For example, on Windows 10, you can go to the “System” section in Settings and go to the “Battery Saver” tab. At the top you will see the level and approximately the remaining time.

    By clicking the Battery Usage link, you'll be able to see which apps are consuming the most power.

    You can monitor the battery status and time battery life by using special utilities– BatteryCare, Battery Optimizer, Battery Eater Pro, etc. These programs allow you to optimize the performance of your laptop, showing battery life when different settings. In addition, some manufacturers build into laptops proprietary utilities, controlling the operation of the battery. For example, on Lenovo laptops The Energy Management program is responsible for power management, through which you can also find out the battery status.

    Returning the charge icon

    If the laptop battery icon has disappeared from the notification panel, you can quickly get it back by adjusting the display system icons. On Windows 8 and 7:

    If the laptop has Windows 10, the procedure is performed differently:


    View battery capacity

    If your laptop's battery level drops sharply and you are running out of battery life, check the battery capacity. Capacity decreases over time, so even if the notification area icon shows 100% battery level, the battery may actually be charged at 50 percent of its original capacity. Why is this happening? This is due to the wear and tear of the laptop battery, which needs to be changed promptly.

    To find out the battery capacity of a laptop, use the Windows command line:

    1. Run command line with administrator rights.
    2. Run "powercfg -energy".
    3. Wait for the diagnostics to complete and the report to be generated.

    Another way to find out the degree of battery wear is to view it using the AIDA64 program. This diagnostic utility shows the status of all laptop components, including battery capacity and charge. Therefore, even if the battery icon disappears, you can view the charge level in AIDA64.


    AIDA64 offers free demo access for 30 days. After this period, you must purchase a license or stop using the utility.

    Setting up the power supply

    If it is not possible to replace the battery, and the battery life urgently needs to be increased, then try to optimize the operation of the computer by adjusting the power supply. You can do this through the control panel:


    On Windows 10 there are even more customization options. On the “Battery Saver” tab in the “System” section Windows settings you can enable the function of the same name (available only when running on battery power).

    A useful free utility for laptops that replaces the standard battery charge indicator and offers useful additional features. BatteryCare adds its own icon to the system tray, which, when the power is turned off, changes to two numbers - battery charge in percentage and a forecast of the remaining operating time in hours/minutes. Standard icon Windows Power Options can be hidden, the font color of the BatteryCare icon is customizable. The utility can calculate the operating time forecast independently, based on accumulated statistical data (the time until automatic shutdown/sleep or until complete discharge, user selectable).

    When you hover over the icon, a window appears with the most important information: charge and remaining operating time, processor temperature and hard drive, current energy saving plan (“ maximum performance", "balanced", "energy saving", etc.). The figure for the discharge and charge power of the battery in watts is useful for assessing the level of consumption of individual system components and in general, fine tuning energy saving modes. It is curious that the temperature values Core processor 2 Duo T9300 and hard drive from BatteryCare did not match Open utilities data Hardware Monitor(from ) and , which is noticeable in the screenshot.

    When you double-click on the icon, the main BatteryCare window opens, which, when you select the “Advanced” tab, shows a lot of interesting information about the battery. The battery manufacturer and nominal capacity are indicated, in addition to the same charge/discharge rates, the current maximum capacity and degree of wear, data on calibrations performed are visible.

    On this useful features BatteryCare doesn't end there. When changing the power source, the utility can automatically activate the desired power plan. For example, switching to “energy saving” when switching to a battery, and when power returns from the network, activating back the “maximum performance” mode.

    It is possible to activate pop-up notifications about the battery's full charge, low/critical percentage discharge (the degree is configurable), as well as N minutes before the end of work. Notification is also possible sound alerts. To save battery when unplugged, BatteryCare can automatically turn off Aero effects, side Windows panel and stop some services. Statistics are kept on the number of discharge cycles and calibrations; past indicators can be manually added to the values. After a certain number of cycles, a reminder may be displayed to require a complete discharge for calibration. There is an automatic update.

    IN new version BatteryCare 0.9.10.0:

    • Added optional sound notifications.
    • The procedure for calculating temperatures of Intel processors has been updated.
    • Minor bugs fixed.

    Among free utilities This kind of BatteryCare perhaps offers the maximum number of possibilities.

    BatteryCare 0.9.10.0(Windows, freeware)

    • installer - SetupBatteryCare.zip (1.4 MB)
    • portable - BatteryCarePortable.zip (1.1 MB)

    Just recently I described to you brightness control in tray taskbar, and today I came across a free computer battery indicator on the Internet that already has this regulator built into it. In addition to this “trick”, in Battery Mode there are still many differences from the default system utility"Nutrition".

    First, let me remind you how to turn on the display standard icon“Power” in the taskbar tray, and I’ll also show you the modest functionality of the built-in solution.

    System battery indicator

    I’ll tell you using the example of modern Windows 10. To turn on the “Power” icon in the tray, right-click anywhere on the desktop and in the appeared context menu select the “Personalization” item. Next, go to the “Taskbar” item and there, going down a little with the slider, click on “Turn system icons on and off...

    The system "Power" icon has appeared in the taskbar tray. What is available to us in standard utility? Not that many features...

    You can find out the percentage of battery charge, use the slider to change the power mode, go to “Battery Settings” and change (in large and inconvenient steps) the brightness of the screen.



    The context menu for the “Power” icon is also not at all impressive...

    Just three sad points. Another thing...

    Battery indicator for computer Battery Mode

    Main window Battery programs Mode is also not impressive at first - the same percentage of battery charge shows, you can switch the power supply scheme (previously created independently in system partition“Power Options”), change the screen brightness with a smooth slider and shut down the system (this link changes in the program menu)…

    But context menu battery indicator icon Battery Mode - simply teeming useful features and the necessary quick links...

    From here you can go to the already familiar computer power settings, a couple of clicks brings us closer to the on/off switch for system icons, with one click computer mouse you can get to the Windows Mobility Center.

    The style is changing here...

    ...and the color of the icons...

    ...configuring hotkeys...

    ...the screen brightness is fixed and if you multiple monitors— you can choose which ones to display the program icon in the tray.

    Battery Mode from its menu allows you to control the brightness of several connected monitors individually. It has a wonderful scheduler that allows you to automatically switch power plans when a certain event occurs...

    Read more about this planner on the official website Battery Mode programs.

    You can also quickly turn off the screen from the menu and view information about the battery installed in the laptop...

    This is generally an exclusive feature that I personally have never seen in any monitoring program.

    Download battery indicator Battery Mode

    The Battery Mode battery indicator works in any version operating system Windows (XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 and 10). The installer size is 1.7 or 1.9 MB (depending on the system bit depth). There are also ready-made portable versions of the program.

    Turning on the laptop for the first time after purchasing it. Inclusions that were made in the retail network to check functionality do not count. All. We checked it, bought it, brought it home, turned it on. This is the first inclusion.

    So, the first time you need to turn on the laptop with the charger connected. Stop tormenting the battery. She did her best to keep the laptop working before purchasing it.

    Perhaps you were not the first buyer of this computer; perhaps you were not the only one who turned it on and tested it. Perhaps the laptop was checked at the factory after assembly. And the resource was used everywhere battery. Enough!

    In addition, a lot of time passed from the moment the laptop was assembled to the moment it was sold. All this time the battery was in the laptop and was never charged. That's why

    The first thing to do after purchasing a laptop is to charge its battery.

    By the way, the laptop battery is charged even when the laptop is turned off. Just connect the charger to the laptop and turn it on at 220V.

    But somehow I can’t raise my hand to give advice to first fully charge the battery, and only then turn on the new laptop. It’s unlikely that anyone will have the patience for this. After all, you want to see your purchase, so to speak, in action.

    So, we connect the new laptop to the charger, we connect the charger to electrical network 220V, turn on the laptop, boot it up. At the same time, the laptop battery begins to charge. This charging can no longer be interrupted until the battery is charged to 100%. Even if such a charge lasts for a long time, several hours, for example.

    A new laptop battery must be charged to 100% until the laptop battery indicator light, which is usually found in all such devices, goes off (or changes color from yellow or red to green).

    Indicators are placed only on those devices and processes that are most important for control. If there is a battery charge indicator, then the laptop battery is very important device computer. Let's never forget about this.

    When you turn on the laptop for the first time, be sure to achieve 100% battery charge. We do not stop charging even if the Windows indicator (the image of the battery located on the right side of it) shows 100% charge of the laptop battery: But if the light indicator built into the laptop does not indicate the end of the charge (does not turn off or change its color to green), we continue to charge the battery:

    Until the battery indicator light for the laptop indicates the end of the battery charge. It will either change its color to green or go out altogether.

    By the way, blinking indicator light Laptop Battery Low means that the laptop's battery is almost discharged, to a level close to 0%. Read the continuation of the topic in the following articles.

    P.S. By computer literacy you can still read.

    Three years later, the laptop began to hold the battery for about 40 minutes instead of four hours, we decided to figure out what the reason was and find ways to solve it. For those who don't want to buy a new battery.

    At first glance, the reason is obvious - the laptop battery is worn out. But I still wanted to get to the bottom of the truth and solve the problem. Our battery number is PA3832.

    IN modern Li-ion batteries have a controller responsible for the battery charge; it counts the number of charge-discharge cycles and calculates the percentage of battery wear. Usually after long work batteries, the controller may give incorrect data and needs to be calibrated.

    Battery controller calibration

    Download and install a program for monitoring battery status BattareyBar Pro.

    In terms of power supply, we set the following values:

    Find out the full capacity of the battery

    We disconnect the charging from the laptop and note the operating time until the message “a few minutes left until the battery is completely discharged.” Then we reboot the system, go into Bios and note the time until complete shutdown laptop. If it works in this mode long time, which means there is still some reserve in the battery. If it works for up to 10 minutes, then everything is fine with the controller and the battery needs to be changed or repacked.

    Calibration

    In essence, calibration is a complete discharge and full charge of the battery in several cycles to change the data of the battery controller.

    If the battery is completely discharged, you need to charge it immediately, because Li-ion batteries They are afraid of being completely discharged and may fail. After the system reports that the battery is charged, you should wait a few more hours until it is truly fully charged.

    Previously, we tracked battery life in Windows and after that in Bios. Now we need to add up this time, and we will get the approximate operating time of our battery. We got 50 minutes + 40 minutes = 1 hour 20 minutes.

    After fully charged disconnect the charger and look in the BattareyBar Pro program to see how much time is left. If the time has increased, then the calibration was successful; if not, we proceed to the second stage of calibration.

    So as not to watch boring Bios screen, further actions will be on Windows.

    Unplug a fully charged laptop from charger, we record the time and monitor the battery discharge through our program. When the system writes that there is 1 minute left, let the laptop work without load for the time it worked in Bios, subtracting 10 minutes from it. If you have a battery indicator on your laptop, plug in the charger when it starts blinking.

    In our case it is 40 -10 = 30 minutes. When this time has passed, we connect the charger again and, repeating this process again, work with the laptop in normal mode. During operation, after a while the battery will show the correct data.

    Repacking the battery

    Previously, our laptop had 4 hours of battery life, an additional 30 minutes after calibration was not enough, so we decided to replace the batteries in the battery.

    First, it was necessary to disassemble the battery without damaging it. In the video you can watch the process of disassembling the battery.

    The next step is to find out, using a cup, a tester and a light bulb, how worn out the batteries are in the battery. Having built simple diagram, in the photo below

    and having discharged the battery to 10.5 volts using a light bulb, all that remains is to measure each pair of batteries under load and calculate the weakest link. The battery that discharges the fastest is the problem one.

    After some minor manipulations, it was possible to determine that the batteries were worn out almost equally and there was no obvious weak link, so you need to change all pairs.

    Having bought the batteries, all that remains is to replace them; if you are not comfortable with a soldering iron, we do not recommend that you do this.

    After repacking, this is how the assembly turned out; the lid was not put on in order to measure the battery voltage during operation. You need to solder while trying to heat the batteries as little as possible. It is advisable to use resistance welding instead of a soldering iron.

    By inserting the battery and turning on the computer, we fully charged it within 6 hours, always under supervision. A fully charged battery should read 12.6 volts; a discharged battery should show 10.6 volts.

    You also need to measure three pairs of batteries for the same voltage 12.6 / 3 = 4.2 volts. If the indicators are different, discharge those pairs( light bulb), where the voltage is greater to the same values.

    After disconnecting the charger, the operating time showed the same as on the old battery. For correct information About the battery, you need to flash its controller by resetting the number of charge cycles to 0.

    Since we did not have the tools to program the controller, we decided to calibrate the battery using the method described above. As a result, within two days of working with the laptop, the system began to show correct battery data. Our battery shows and runs 3 hours 40 minutes.

    Conclusions

    The easiest way to extend the life of your battery is to calibrate its controller if it shows incorrect data and the batteries are still working. Not all controllers can be configured this way, so it depends on your luck.

    If you are comfortable with a soldering iron, you can restore the battery life almost like new. The main problem is finding batteries for repackaging. Ideal option take them from the working battery of a new non-repairable laptop. If there is none, look for ebay.com or dx.com suitable according to the parameters.

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