X60 Battery Now lasts only 15mins

Hi there,

Something weird has happened with my X60 battery. It was fine for about 10months giving me approx 1.5 - 2hrs usage on a full charge depending on what i was running. Now it barely gives me 15 mins if i'm lucky. Another weird thing is that when i press the charge indicator button on the battery, no matter if flat or fully charged the 20%, 60% and 100% leds flash. Even when it is stone cold flat.

I have always been quite careful with regards to letting it run down and not leaving it in when running from mains. Does anyone know what is causing this. Is there anyway to get back to my normal useage or will it need replacing. Would samsung replace under the warranty.

thanks everyone in advance.

Jamie

 

The first thing to do is to look at the reported battery wear. MobileMeter will tell you this (if you are still running XP). Right click on the graph and select options. Then go to the battery tab. Tell us what you see. [If you are running Vista, or already use RMclock, then you can work out the wear from the designed capacity and the remaining capacity.]

Then disable the critical battery action in Windows so that the computer doesn't shut down at 3% (or whatever you have set it to). Run the computer on battery until the computer stops. Keep a simple record of time, % charge and predicted time remaining. If there's a calibration problem then you may discover that you can run for some time with the battery on 0% remaining. Repeat for several charge / discharge cycles.

I was advised to us this technique when the battery in my X60 plus jumped from 9% to 15% wear. After a couple of full depletions it went back to where it was before.

There is also a battery calibration option in the BIOS. Try that if the above procedure makes no changes.

As for warranty, 12 months is the absolute limit for warranty cover on batteries. Are you past that? If you do need a new battery, I posted a link near the end of the R20 thread to a place with batteries a reasonable prices.

John

 

Ok, thanks John for the ever so quick reply,

here's what mobilemeter says about the battery:
Remaining Wattage : 6471mWh
Designed Capacity : 57520mWh
Fully Charged Capacity : 12210mWh
Wear Level : 78%
Voltage: 11786mV
Type: Lithium Ion

That wear level doesnt sound good,

thanks john

jamie

 

The high wear level is consistent with your short running time.

One of the Asus models (V1J) has had serious problems with abnormal battery wear. There's a long thread about it somewhere. Running those computers on 0% remaining helped to restore some capacity.

John

 

i got problem also for my battery~ i no use it for long period (about few month) then i unplug put another place. now i plug in my battery, the light at my lappy change color, but my battery didn't charge~ i tried install the software and it show the charge rate are 0w.....so is my lappy charge spoil or my battery spoil? that battery i only use for few times only~

 

One of my friends with a year-old X60 has also told me that his X60's battery holds no charge. He discovered this when he wanted to use the battery after several months of having the computer plugged into the mains.

So, is this a bug with the X60 or with the batteries being designed to die suddenly?

John

 

I've got the same problem with the battery. After 14 months my battery lasts only for an hour and the battery charge indicator flashes just as jimjam reported. Since I've got a studentbook with 2 years of service in whole Europe, I was wondering, if this also applies to my battery ... will check it out.

 

Perhaps it is time for all the people who have battery problems to contact Samsung support.

Lithium batteries do lose capacity with time but they should no suddenly drop from healthy to zero.

John

 

A question: What is the Rev No. of your problem battery? (it's on the label with the bar code).

The battery from my old X60 is a Rev 1.0. It has also developed the 3 flashing lights problem but I've just tested it and it still has about 2/3rd of the original capacity. The label says battery cells made in Japan.

The battery from my X60 plus is Rev 1.1 and, so far, is behaving OK. The lights behave as they should and there is some loss of charge. The label says battery cells made in Korea.

John

 

OH no, I just discovered I have the same problem! Wanted to use the battery after a few months of running almost exclusively on mains, and found out my battery holds only about 1h15min. Mobilemark showed 55% wear-off, and after 2 more days it now shows 57%. My prehistoric Samsung V20 with a prehistoric battery (2002) only shows 15% wearoff.
There IS something wrong with these batteries (mine also says "Battery cells made in Japan") and it is also Rev 1.0
I also bought the 9-cell battery which I hardly ever use, and it showed 15% wearoff, and now today it already is 17%. It cost me 200euro
Can we do anything about it?

 

2 weeks ago a recalibrated my battery. From that moment, it lost its capacity completely. It is not even chargin. Whenever a hit the battery status hotkey I get 0.0%. If I unplug the AC cable, the notebook turns off immediately. Called SAMSUNG and will send the notebook in for repair.

 

At the moment the battery in my X60 plus is stable at about 41WHr which is about 2/3rds of the original capacity. I haven't tried recalibrating it recently.

John