“Consider replacing your battery” error message: SOLVED

When we were younger, whenever I borrowed my sister’s laptop, she always made sure that I didn’t take the battery along with it and would adamantly advise me to NEVER USE A LAPTOP WHILE CHARGING ITS BATTERY. She said that doing so ruins it. I never quite believed that, though, until I learned it the hard way. A few days ago, just out of the blue, this warning popped up on my laptop:

My Acer Aspire 5742G is now more than 2 years old, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye yet,  so, being the cheapskate that I am, I searched online for the possible solutions before I decide to take it to a technician or buy a replacement battery. And I’m glad I did. Read on to find out how I fixed the “Consider replacing your battery” error message.

THE PROBLEM:

Getting the error message: “Consider replacing your battery”

(on battery) blinking red X

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

This error message shows up when the battery of the laptop can no longer achieve its full capacity (i.e. battery can no longer be charged up to 100%). This feature, apparently, is only available to devices running Windows 7 and up.

WHY DOES IT HAPPEN?

1.       The battery is nearing its end of life.

2.       The battery has been damaged in some way.

3.       The battery ‘forgets’ its battery levels and therefore needs to be calibrated.

When exposed to extreme heat (due to lack of proper ventilation and/or running heavy programs), the laptop protects itself by automatically shutting down. I think these repeated shutdowns “confuses” the battery into thinking that it has been used a lot of times and, therefore, nearing its end. It could also be because, when you’re using it with both the battery on and connected to the charger, it is discharging while charging, which could be very ‘confusing’ to the battery because it doesn’t get to reach its maximum level.

THE SOLUTION: Calibrate the battery.
   
Calibrating the battery means that you will have to fully charge it, then use it as you usually would on battery until it becomes totally empty, then charge it again. This makes the battery “remember” its battery levels and “realize” that it DOES get fully charged.

Steps:

1. Run an energy report of your computer.

a.Run command prompt as  Administrator.

b.Run elevated command prompt (using cd\ command)

c. Type powercfg –energy, then hit Enter. Wait 60 seconds and open the link C:\energy-report.html on a browser as shown on the screen. You will be able to see here what the errors are and the battery readings.

2.       Start battery calibration.

a. Run the laptop on battery (without connecting the charger) until battery becomes empty. Use the computer as you normally would.

Depending on the power settings, the laptop may go to sleep/ hibernate when it reaches a certain battery percentage (e.g. 10%). If it does, just wake it up again (don’t connect the charger) and continue to use it until battery reaches 0% and shuts down on its own.

b. Once the battery is totally empty, remove the battery, press and hold the laptop’s power button for 30 seconds. (This is just to ensure that there’s no remaining power in the computer).

c. Connect the charger (don’t put the battery back in yet) and switch on the computer. Once it has completely booted up, put the battery in.

d. Charge the battery until it reaches 100%. DO NOT USE THE COMPUTER WHILE IT IS CHARGING.

You will notice here that as soon as you start charging it again,
the red X and the warning are gone.
Just wait for it to reach 100%

e. Once it is fully charged, disconnect the charger and use the laptop on battery until it becomes empty again, repeating the previous steps.

                                In short, Empty►Fully Charge►Empty►Fully Charge

In my case, the issue got fixed just after the second cycle but you may try it 2-3 times. You will know that it’s fixed when the warning and the Red X no longer shows up the next time you switch on the laptop. You can also run the energy report again to view the battery’s Last Full Charge and other stats.

Other things you can try:

1. Turn off the notification by unchecking the box on the error message.

This is actually not a solution and I strongly suggest against it. What if the battery really does need replacing? However, there are a lot of forums that had this suggestion so I thought I should include it here, too, but only do this if you are absolutely sure that you’ve done everything in your power and you’re certain that the battery is ok.

2. Upgrade.

Upgrade any driver that needs to be upgraded on the computer.

3. Update the BIOS software on your computer.
I will not discuss this in this article but you can find a lot of tutorials on how to do this online.

4. If all else fails, replace your battery.
Make sure that you only buy one from your laptop’s manufacturer to avoid further damage to your computer.

TIP:

Using a device while it’s being charged is apparently one of the top battery-killers, not just for laptops but also for mobile phones and other gadgets. If you can, just use AC power on your laptop while at home and reserve the battery when you’re on-the-go.  For mobile phones, as much as you can, wait for it to be empty before you recharge. Also, I have read somewhere that you should calibrate your gadgets’ batteries at least once a month.