Windows recommends I get a new Battery

I turned my latop on today (acer 5920G) and I saw the battery icon flicking and telling me that I need a battery replacement. I've only had it a year exactly and it's always been used with the cable powering it. So I take it this destroys the battery.

Would my warrenty cover this or do I need to spend £50 on a new battery?

 

No it should not destroy it, if it did then something's faulty. It can't hurt though, to drain the battery in windows until your system automatically shuts down, then do a full recharge. Also install this nice little app called BatteryBar

http://osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/

It gives you detailed info on your battery, how much life its lost etc.

You can help your battery drain more quickly by turning the brightness up on your display to 100%, turn on wi-fi, bluetooth, and run something like prime95 to grind your CPU at 100% ( http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft/).

Sometimes your battery needs to do this to recalibrate.

 

Do you game on it?
The heat produce damages the cells.

 

Yeah, and batteries do discharge even if you're on AC, they just get charged up immediately.

Also you may have primarily used it on AC, but if you unplugged to move, or unplugged for short sessions, this still adds charge cycles to your battery and increases wear.

That with the heat may have killed it after a year, but hopefully it just needs to be recalibrated. Either way, if you're going to be on AC for a long period of time, drain the battery to 40% and remove it.

Also by 'killed it' I mean it's wear has reached a certain % that windows reports you should replace it.

 

Batteries are designed to stay in the laptop throughout their lifetime. Sure you may gain a bit of life out of a battery by removing it, but not a whole lot. And it doesn't offset the issues if it is removed (i.e. accidentally removing the power cord, power fluctuations, etc.).

 

Offsetting alternative problems and extending your battery's life is not the same thing. I guess you just have to prioritize which one you prefer to have =P.

 

Bottom line is that I have NEVER seen in a user manual to remove your battery when on AC for an extended period. EVER. Batteries are NOT that expensive. No I wouldn't want to replace it a couple times a year, but you're talking about a couple years, and removing it by saving maybe a couple months extra on your battery at best, depending on usage. Some if it depends on the battery, where it's attached to the PC, and the quality of the components.

Just for reference, I have had my battery in my Sager since I got it nearly 9 months ago. Plugged in probably over 95% of the time. I use it for gaming too (i.e. high heat). See my battery bar wear, it's 1.3%. I have purposely cycled the battery a full cycle (from 100% to 5%) about three times in the last 9 months for calibration.

 

My battery has 70% wear but I'm not sure if it's because it's just a crappy battery or if it's due to heat. My sister had the same problem too as she has the exact same laptop but she doesn't game on it. She bought a new battery a few months ago and it's at 3.5% wear now. But my dad's laptop which is the same make and model as mine but different specs has had his for two years and it has no wear at all.

 

It's all in how you use it. If you unplug a lot, even for 20 minutes use, and plug back in, it will wear more than if just plugged in most of the time. Every bit of battery use will wear it down. Battery use is the main culprit, not leaving it plugged in.

 

That's weird.. lol.. I know someone who plugged in his laptop with batteries and the laptop is running for 24 hours daily.. for about 5 years.. Battery life still has about 2 hours.. hmm..

 

That's my whole point. Leaving it plugged in has nothing to do with battery life usually, if it's programmed decently in the charging mechanism.