Laptop shuts down even while battery >40%

sonictk

Hi.

I have a 3 year old Toshiba Satellite R10 tablet. Pictured for...visualization?



Thing is, in the past year or so, I've noticed that it seems to be running a little odd. It reports that battery levels are above 40% (sometimes even above 50%) after I give it a full charge and use it for a while, and then it'll (without warning) shut down by itself. Now I have warnings set up for when the level hits 25% (just a warning) and auto shut down if battery level hits 7%.

I've never really noticed this until the past few months or so, since I never actually really brought the laptop to school (yes I'm a student), mostly using it for its tablet capabilites. (Sort of like having a Cintiq, though a little slower, but I got it kind of cheap price-wise.) I mostly left it charging...with the power on even at full charge and never bothering to give it full discharges and etc for my first year of ownership or so. Yes I knew battery life can be substantially shortened through such carelessness but back then I didn't really think much of it. And tbh the laptop seemed to do fine for the times I took it around the house to work on stuff.

Now, though, the laptop seems to be able to handle a painting session in PS/Painter for about 2 hours, maybe a little more before I hear my shutdown tone and go 'crap' for not saving about an hour's worth of work. All the time.

It's been getting insanely annoying lately, to the point where now I'm trying to figure out what's really going on. I know Li-Ion batteries can degrade, but I am not entirely certain they can report false battery power levels. Could someone please enlighten me on this issue? Also, would anyone know of a feasible solution to this problem, short of purchasing a new battery?

Just to clarify, I'm not hoping to extend my battery life; I know batteries degrade irreversibly and my lack of care with it hasn't helped much, though now I don't just leave it charging indefinitely, of course (since I've finally started taking to it school with me) What would be perfect would be a way for me to get the battery to report its power levels accurately so that my laptop won't shut down even when I see the icon showing I have like 2 full hours left. I know I could set the thresholds higher, but I'd prefer not to do that, since sometimes the battery DOES go around 25% or so before it suddenly loses all power.

Any suggestions?

ben0207

Is it maybe overheating?

sonictk

I...don't think so, since my hands don't feel like putty after working/typing on it for extended periods of time. By which I mean at stretches of 3 hours or so. Though it does generate heat of course, but I don't think it's 'overheating' heat.

And yes there is hot air coming out of the vents during operation.

urahonky

It really is probably overheating. Try taking some canned air and blowing out the fans/vents. If that helps at all, then try to buy a cooling pad, those thing usually work really well.

Or set it next to a fan and mess around with it for a while.

sonictk

But I regularly run SpeedFan on my laptop and PC (just for fun, but you never know) and while I don't really know much about what a 'proper' temperature for laptops is there isn't any warning of overheating or anything of the sort.

And I work mostly with a fan next to me or in an air-conditioned environment.

I'll look at the vents and see if they're dusty or something, but uh I don't think it would be wise to take apart this laptop, as I have no idea how to go about doing this for a tablet. Looking at it right now the vents don't seemed to be clogged up. Well, from the outside, anyway.

Should I be running something like SpeedFan instead and checking the temperature?

EDIT: I just took a quick pic of the vents with my phone camera, which focused on the goddamn logitech mouse instead of the vents, but I hope it shows: no dust or obstructions on the outside.



EDIT #2: While I'm at it, I guess it's worth mentioning that when I run it at home, I have a laptop stand that actually inclines the entire laptop when I convert it to 'slate' mode so that I can draw on it easier. I haven't noticed any difference in battery life either way, and I'm not aware otherwise, but inclining the laptop shouldn't have any negative effects on its performance, right? It's not like I'm jerking it around or anything.

DHS Odium

Your battery is dying, get a new one. It is possible for the computer to report the wrong battery life, in fact my iBook does just this. My first battery eventually would have the computer go to sleep when it hit 20%, and later would do this even earlier, like 40% and eventually 60%. I got a new battery a year ago and now it's completely drained around 20%, and won't charge past 80%.

sonictk

Eh, this is exactly what I was afraid of, but is there at least a way to get the battery to at least report accurately what its power level is? I've tried giving the battery a full discharge/recharge once or twice, but so far it doesn't seem to have had any effect whatsoever.

Undead Scottsman

DHS Odium wrote: »

Your battery is dying, get a new one. It is possible for the computer to report the wrong battery life, in fact my iBook does just this. My first battery eventually would have the computer go to sleep when it hit 20%, and later would do this even earlier, like 40% and eventually 60%. I got a new battery a year ago and now it's completely drained around 20%, and won't charge past 80%.

Likewise, my laptop has had a crappy battery for awhile now; to the point where it'll often report hte battery as fully charged, right up to when it shuts down with no warning.

sonictk

That completely sucks, since this laptop is so old, probably any battery I buy new will have been most likely manufactured and left on shelves to rot a long time ago. =\

On a related note, my laptop managed to last me around 2 hours doing normal web surfing and IMing, no problem. Until 37%. I was feeling lucky and decided to open Painter, after which about 10 seconds later the rig shut down.

I don't believe in coincidences, but to believe my battery is linked to CPU stress also seems a little far-fetched. =p Oh well. Laptop batteries cost a hell lot, though.