Calibrating a laptop Battery in Vista
PROBLEM:
Unlike previous versions of Windows, Vista does not have a way to calibrate your battery for those laptops that do not have a BIOS option to do so.
In previous version you just set all the power options to NEVER and the laptop would run until the battery completely discharges.
In Vista the NEVER or Do Nothing option is not available for the "Critical battery action" > "On battery"
This means the only way to accomplish this is for the OS to run until all power is gone and it turns off. I don't mean windows turns it off, but it just turns off due to loss of power. It's not graceful and I highly do not recommend anyone performing this procedure unless you are an advanced admin that is willing to accept the potential consequences in case the OS is crashed and not recoverable.
Use following procedure to create a new power scheme for critical action on battery to "Do Nothing(0)".
{PCINFO CAUTION: This setting is only for running the battery completely down. It may cause loss of date and you need to make sure you are doing nothing when the batter runs out and the system turns off. This setting will not allow the computer to shutdown, hibernate or sleep. It will just turn off.}
Method One:
1. Create Start > Control Panel and double click Power Options
2. Click Create a power plan on the left side of window
3. Select the Power Saver radio button
4. In the Plan Name field, type the name you want to call the power plan, i.e. Battery Calibration
5. Click the [Next] button.
6. Click the [Create] button.
{PCINFO NOTE: At this point your new power plan is active and you can choose to change other settings in the plan, (i.e. "Put the computer to sleep" to "Never"), from the Select a power plan window that is active or just close the window and continue.}
7. Change the Critical battery action to Do Nothing by clicking Start > Run or Windows Key+R and
type powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 0
8. Click on the [OK] button.
9. Use the laptop as normal and stop any work before the battery runs out.
{PCINFO NOTE: Remember to change back to your normal power scheme once you boot the laptop.}
10. After the laptop battery is completely discharge reconnect you powersupply and turn on the laptop.
11. Once the laptop boots, login and restore your previous Battery critical action by using Control Panel > Power Options and change you plan settings for your current power scheme back to the way you had it or use the same command in step 7 as follows:
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Sleep
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 1
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Hibernate
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 2
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Shut down
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 3
Unlike previous versions of Windows, Vista does not have a way to calibrate your battery for those laptops that do not have a BIOS option to do so.
In previous version you just set all the power options to NEVER and the laptop would run until the battery completely discharges.
In Vista the NEVER or Do Nothing option is not available for the "Critical battery action" > "On battery"
This means the only way to accomplish this is for the OS to run until all power is gone and it turns off. I don't mean windows turns it off, but it just turns off due to loss of power. It's not graceful and I highly do not recommend anyone performing this procedure unless you are an advanced admin that is willing to accept the potential consequences in case the OS is crashed and not recoverable.
Use following procedure to create a new power scheme for critical action on battery to "Do Nothing(0)".
{PCINFO CAUTION: This setting is only for running the battery completely down. It may cause loss of date and you need to make sure you are doing nothing when the batter runs out and the system turns off. This setting will not allow the computer to shutdown, hibernate or sleep. It will just turn off.}
Method One:
1. Create Start > Control Panel and double click Power Options
2. Click Create a power plan on the left side of window
3. Select the Power Saver radio button
4. In the Plan Name field, type the name you want to call the power plan, i.e. Battery Calibration
5. Click the [Next] button.
6. Click the [Create] button.
{PCINFO NOTE: At this point your new power plan is active and you can choose to change other settings in the plan, (i.e. "Put the computer to sleep" to "Never"), from the Select a power plan window that is active or just close the window and continue.}
7. Change the Critical battery action to Do Nothing by clicking Start > Run or Windows Key+R and
type powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 0
8. Click on the [OK] button.
9. Use the laptop as normal and stop any work before the battery runs out.
{PCINFO NOTE: Remember to change back to your normal power scheme once you boot the laptop.}
10. After the laptop battery is completely discharge reconnect you powersupply and turn on the laptop.
11. Once the laptop boots, login and restore your previous Battery critical action by using Control Panel > Power Options and change you plan settings for your current power scheme back to the way you had it or use the same command in step 7 as follows:
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Sleep
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 1
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Hibernate
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 2
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Shut down
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 3
Okay, so how do I change the critical battery from ''Do nothing'' back to the way it was?
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Thanks for the comment. I updated the post to add the following. I hope this helps
Appended the following to Entry:
10. After the laptop battery is completely discharge reconnect you powersupply and turn on the laptop.
11. Once the laptop boots, login and restore your previous Battery critical action by using Control Panel > Power Options and change you plan settings for your current power scheme back to the way you had it or use the same command in step 7 as follows:
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Sleep
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 1
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Hibernate
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 2
Use the following command for Setting you critical battery action to Shut down
powercfg -setdcvalueindex scheme_current sub_battery batactioncrit 3
Reply to this