Laptop batteries degrade over time and lose their ability to hold a charge. Checking the health of your laptop battery can help you determine if it needs to be replaced. Here are some ways to check your laptop battery health:
Check Battery Charge Cycles
Most laptop batteries are rated for 300-500 charge cycles before their capacity begins to diminish. A charge cycle is when the battery is discharged from 100% to 0% and then fully recharged back to 100%.
You can check how many charge cycles your battery has gone through by:
- On Windows – Open the Power Options control panel and click on the battery meter. The charge cycle count is shown here.
- On Mac – Open System Information and go to the Power section. Battery Cycle Count shows the number of cycles.
A higher cycle count means the battery is closer to the end of its useful life. Anything over 500 cycles usually indicates it’s time for a replacement.
Use Battery Diagnostic Tools
There are some handy tools provided by laptop manufacturers to test battery health:
- Dell – Dell Battery Health application checks wear level and performs diagnostics.
- HP – HP Support Assistant has a battery check module to test performance.
- Lenovo – Lenovo Vantage or Lenovo Settings has a battery gauge to assess condition.
These tools rate the battery as excellent, good, fair, or poor based on metrics like cycle count, capacity loss, and internal resistance. A fair or poor result means replacement is needed.
Check Runtime on Full Charge
A simple test is to fully charge your laptop battery and then use the laptop unplugged. If your battery runtime has noticeably shortened over time, such as less than 2 hours, its capacity has reduced due to aging.
You can try this test a few times, such as with different screen brightness levels. Compare the results to when your battery was newer to check if capacity has lowered. A runtime drop of more than 20% indicates wear.
Examine Battery Capacity
You can check the wear level and capacity of your battery in the operating system:
- Windows – Open Battery settings and look at Battery capacity. This shows the original capacity and current capacity.
- macOS – Click the battery icon and select Battery Health. Look at Maximum Capacity vs Design Capacity.
A current or maximum capacity value that’s 20% lower than the original capacity means the battery needs replacement.
Monitor Battery Wear
Apps like CoconutBattery (Mac) and BatteryBar (Windows) run in the background and keep tabs on battery metrics like cycles, capacity, temperature, etc. Observe the wear level over weeks to determine if battery degradation is accelerating.
These apps can also warn you when capacity drops below a usable level, such as 80%. This is a sign to replace the battery.
Summary
Checking battery charge cycles, using diagnostic tools, monitoring runtime, examining capacity metrics, and tracking wear over time are good ways to determine the health status of your laptop battery. Replace the battery when you notice significant capacity loss, shortened runtime, high cycle counts, or warning indicators. This will restore battery life and runtime back to original levels.
