Alienware 14 battery life after 16 months.

My 14 is 16 mo. old and i'm only getting about 2 hrs. on battery just surfing and a few videos. Graphics is off and also FX. Screen is at 40%. The battery monitor I installed says wear level at 15%. What does that mean? I bought a 2 yr. warranty but I don't believe it covers batteries. Is this normal after 16 mo.? A new battery is 190.00 and i only found one place that sells them. $200 every year and 4 months is a outrages just to have a battery for when I'm on a plane. Thanks

 

If you have been using it every day for the past 16 months, it's definitely possible that there is 15% degradation on the battery. If you keep your system plugged in most of the time, it should not have that much degradation. You can contact Technical Support (1800 ALIENWARE) and ask them if it would be possible to replace the battery under warranty.

 

Are you properly depleting it once a month or so? I generally let my laptops run down on battery till they cut off. Then keep powering up till it has nothing. I let them sit for about 24 hours, then plug them in and let them fully charge while they are turned off. I intermittently let them run down to 20-30% on battery then plug them back in while in use. It's bad for the battery to be at 100% with never being exercised...

But at the same time it's not good to deplete them everyday either.

 

Thanks. It usually runs down on the aircraft at least once a month. I believe it use to last around 3 1/2 hrs. when new, now, about 2 doing the same activities, mostly videos. I'll call alieware and see if I can talk them into a new battery. I don't even see a battery for the 14 on their web site.