Hey guys, I was scouring through Everest Ultimate Edition and happened to come across my battery info. My battery wear is 46% after 10 months of usage? Damn that is one big problem if it were true. I can only use it full power at only an hour when it used to be able to handle 2-2.8hrs of LFS full detail on battery. Is it because I left it in the laptop even after it's done charging and it caused damage? I've always heard pleas from my friends to pull it out when it's done to prevent damage but I always dismissed their claims. Can you guys confirm this?

The other thing is with my cooling fans. My CPU cooling fan works as it should (going full blast if it's under intensive load @ 5000RPM) but my GFX card don't do the same. It doesn't show the speed but the percentage. I tried playing some graphics-intensive games but the GFX card's fan stays at 30% speed. Is it supposed to stay that way or should it be able to go 100%? I have a ATi Mobility Radeon HD 5145 and I always update my Catalyst drivers to the latest.

Pics:
BATTERY WEAR PROBLEM?
GFX CARD FAN PROBLEM?

Thanks guys if you can help me out with these problems I found.

it could be possible that you got a bad battery. with mass manufacturing the way it is, it's bound to happen. batteries aren't that expensive to replace. whether or not you should take them out depends on their design. but the thing is, if you want the battery to keep the laptop on, and the power goes out, the laptop will go to unless you have a battery in it. so by taking the battery out, well, you get the point. it's a damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't situation.

on the topic of fan speeds, i wouldn't worry about it too much. they're both controlled by firmware, and should speed up accordingly. there are ways to re-map the fan speed trip points, but it's really dangerous, so i won't go into it here, check the ati forums.

Problem is the GFX card fan don't speed up even under heavy load. That's why I'm pretty worried. About the battery, I'll try to contact Asus on this issue and definitely bring it down to the service centre for a check on my entire laptop.

As long as the GFX isn't overheating, there's no need for worries. Lower fan speeds mean longer battery life. As for the battery itself, unplugging your laptop when it's shut down could improve the battery's lifespan a bit 'cause it can't get overcharged. Electronics in modern laptops should protect the battery from that, but you never know.

First, why you are using Everest when AIDA64 is out for long time, and is a free upgrade for legit Everest users?

Second, you should never trust Everest or AIDA64 at battery related stuff. Get http://osirisdevelopment.com/BatteryBar/ (free version is enough) and check battery wear with it.

@MadCatX: I'm using it plugged into the wall socket for 98% of the time so battery life isn't of my utmost concern. I want maximum performance without the expense of lack of cooling.

@E.Reiljans: Ooo haven't seen that yet. I've only just came across Everest yesterday night lol. I'll check that out later when I have time, same for the Battery Bar. Thanks for the links!

This is what I got from Battery Bar.

BATTERY WEAR

It's showing much worse than AIDA64 or Everest. Now I'm really in a rut whether it really has a huge wear level after just 10 months. And if you noticed, the 77+% shown in Battery Bar is actually 100% calculated by Windows 7. Now there's a big problem.

this usually happens if you don't do the first charge of the battery properly. most people just switch on the laptop and think nothing more of the matter. but you should actually run the battery through a full charge cycle before you switch the laptop on for the first time. can take up to 16 hours for the first charge to complete. this prepares the battery and extends it's life quite a lot.

Dang well the retail guys just pop the battery in and then ran through the setting up for the first time (which I presume battery is already prepared). They told me to charge overnight after bringing it home and that's what I did. No idea what happened after all the months. Can overcharge be the cause as well? I have always been leaving it in the notebook even after it's fully charged (which I presume again that charging is halted) in case there's a powercut.

Overcharge is almost impossible on all modern laptops - BIOS usually makes sure battery stops charging at 99%, and starts charging again after it drops to 90%.

If the electronics that controls power delivery to the battery is malfunctioning, overcharge can lead to serious loss of capacity to Lithium Ion battery cells. Another thing that may hurt Li-Ion battery's life is excessive heat.

Quote from MadCatX :

If the electronics that controls power delivery to the battery is malfunctioning,

you should take your laptop to warranty repair. :P

I'm definitely taking it down to the support centre in another 3 months during my semester break for a thorough check. I'm sure my laptop slows down charging when it reaches 96% then stops at 100%. And the battery is mounted at the rear, furthermore, it's just a long thin bar, so I don't think heat will get to it like most laptops do.

the battery itself gets warm during the charge cycle. it's how they work.

At least not combined with the heat from the laptop itself, if that's good.

UPDATE: Weirdly, AIDA64 is showing me 14% wear level now. And that's a huge hike in amount of full charge capacity.