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Old 11-17-2008, 10:44 AM
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Re: A little tough Love about battery issues.

Quote:
Originally Posted by kevm14 View Post
How does the battery life system work? Does it seem linear? Given that Li-Ion batteries should be capable of monitoring their current throughput, I don't see why, in late 2008, a simple voltage based battery life system is common. I have an older Dell laptop (ca. 2002). There is a battery utility that I use to monitor the performance of my batteries. The battery itself is in charge (punny) of monitoring its own rated capacity, present capacity and present remaining power. So when it has a fresh charge, it knows its rated capacity, and as the laptop uses energy, it keeps track of every electron, essentially counting down. When charging, it counts up. As the cells age, the rated capacity is not the true capacity and it will recalibrate itself (a full discharge is the most direct way to accomplish this) with the new, reduced capacity. Makes me wonder if all Li-Ion batteries are actually capable of this, with all the smarts and safety features they have (by necessity).
I don't use the driver, because of the admitted inaccuracy of it, so I'm not going to speculate on how it operates. I made the statement, because of the provider's own admission that it is inaccurate in those circumstances.

You're right on your description of Li-Ion batteries, but that's kind of irrelevant if the driver polling the battery is inaccurate.
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