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Laptop battery and altitude change

tachyontachyon Registered User regular
edited November 2006 in Help / Advice Forum
Good day,

I have an Asus laptop that I purchased and used for a year in Virginia (approx 300 ft) and have since moved to Colorado (approx 7100 ft).

I started to notice a few weeks after I arrived that my normal battery life of 3-4 hours drops dramatically to 30-45 minutes.

So what are your thoughts? Google generated nothing but battery fire videos and altitude maxs for tactical type laptops.

Appreciate your time.

tachyon on

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    FibretipFibretip Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    from one website about pc's in general :
    Temperature, Humidity, and Altitude
    All computers are designed to operate within specific ranges of temperature, humidity, and altitude. Exceeding the allowable ranges places stress on the system and can cause it to fail prematurely. Therefore, keeping an eye on the conditions where you both use and store your computer is important for the successful operation of the system.

    Temperature, humidity, and altitude variations can lead to serious problems. If extreme variations occur over a short period, expansion and contraction can cause signal traces on circuit boards to crack and separate, and solder joints can break. Extreme humidity can cause contacts in the system to undergo accelerated corrosion or condensation to form in the system and disk drives. Extremely dry conditions can cause problems with static electricity. Operating at high altitudes causes problems with cooling (lower density air renders the cooling system less effective) as well as the internal "air bearing" on which the heads float in the drive while operating.

    couldn't find anything more relevant, but at least it says that you're probably not crazy and there could well be something to investigate, maybe email asus, or whoever you bought it from to enquire specifically about your setup

    Fibretip on
    I believe in angels, not the kind with wings, no...not the kind with halos, the kind who bring you home
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    tachyontachyon Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    That's about all I found.

    Anyone else have experience with this? I travel on business a lot, so even if I got a new battery, I'm afraid it would continue to occur.

    Anyone else in the Rockies have some input?

    Thanks again.

    tachyon on
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    CycophantCycophant Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    I really doubt altitude and altitude alone are causing such a signifigant drop in battery life. Unless there's a lot more to a laptop battery than what I assume, all the standard things that an altitude increase would change doesn't factor into the life of a battery.

    I suppose the quote about lower density meaning less-effective cooling is technically correct, but I can't see it making that much of a difference.

    Could it be something like drastically different operating temperatures, a large change in humidity, or damage during your move?

    Cycophant on
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    tachyontachyon Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    Cycophant wrote:
    I really doubt altitude and altitude alone are causing such a signifigant drop in battery life. Unless there's a lot more to a laptop battery than what I assume, all the standard things that an altitude increase would change doesn't factor into the life of a battery.

    I suppose the quote about lower density meaning less-effective cooling is technically correct, but I can't see it making that much of a difference.

    Could it be something like drastically different operating temperatures, a large change in humidity, or damage during your move?

    No damage, but a definite change in humidity. VA is moderately humid, while where I am in CO (just outside of Co Springs) it's very dry.

    I guess I'll send an email off to ASUS. =)

    tachyon on
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    alcoholic_engineeralcoholic_engineer Registered User regular
    edited November 2006
    When I go on ski trips i take my laptop with me, and really have not noticed a noticeable difference in performance. But then again, I am going from calgary to banff or something, so the change isnt THAT much (as opposed to from sea level).

    alcoholic_engineer on
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