Batteries and batteries are not things we often pay attention to. We charge them and use them. However, these components deserve more attention if you want to be able to use them for a long time. But why is that necessary? And how exactly do you take better care of it?
Why calibrate batteries?
When you've just bought your laptop, the battery works at full power. That means if the laptop says 100 percent capacity is available, it really is, and when it says 5 percent, you don't have to worry that it's actually only 3 percent.
No matter how well you take care of your battery, the capacity will decrease over time, there is nothing you can do about it. However, if you are careless with batteries, you can shorten that lifespan considerably. So situations can arise in which your laptop indicates that it has 100 percent, only to suddenly indicate 40 percent five minutes later. Or it says you have 10 percent left, and a minute later your laptop shuts down without any warning.
At such moments (but preferably well before that as standard procedure) it is wise to calibrate the battery. This is because, simply put, the battery itself no longer knows exactly what 0 percent and 100 percent is, and any values in between are just a rough estimate.
A laptop battery that you don't calibrate can show unrealistic values.
Calibrate battery manually
Although there are laptop manufacturers that provide tools that allow you to automatically calibrate the battery, those tools are not available for every laptop. Moreover, manual calibration is interesting, because then you have some insight into what exactly it is all about.
To calibrate the battery of your laptop, first charge the laptop fully, so to 100 percent. Then let the battery rest for at least two hours by leaving the laptop on the charger so that it runs on AC power and the battery has a chance to cool down.
In the Control Panel, you now set the laptop to go into Sleep mode when it has 5 percent battery left. Unplug the charger. You can now continue to use your laptop until it reaches 5 percent, or you can just leave it on without using it. In the latter case, make sure that the laptop doesn't slip into sleep mode because you're not using it, otherwise the process is pointless.
Once the computer goes into sleep mode at 5 percent, let it rest for at least 5 hours. Then take the charger out again and charge the laptop to the full 100 percent (you can just use your laptop while it is charging). When you use the laptop from now on, the display of the remaining capacity will correspond better with reality.
When you completely drain and recharge the battery, the battery is calibrated.
