Ok. I applied the above solution and will let you know if notifications show up. And another doubt of mine is, how do I calibrate the battery? My battery was a little bit new at the time of installing Zorin. So, how do I calibrate?
The usual method is to run the battery until it dies during use. Then fully charge it up. Some say to do this a couple times in a row.
Ok. So the battery runs out and the laptop shuts off. Now, do I have to charge the laptop while it’s in the off state?
You can charge the battery during use but it will take a bit longer. Ideally to maintain a notebook battery you should:
a. Not charge it above 80%
b. Not let it drop below 30-35%
This increases the life of the battery in terms of number of cycles.
Samsung had a clever utility that prevented you charging above 80% but Samsung notebboks were never brilliant overall - apart from that feature!
In this case, capriciousduck is Calibrating the Battery, so must fully discharge the battery (all the way til it dies) then charge up fully (All the way to 100%) a couple times.
@capriciousduck, I would recommend charging it fully with laptop off just to be on the safe side.
Is it possible to implement this feature on my laptop?
Mine is Lenovo Z50-70 20354 model(i7 CPU)
Ok. And really thanks for the support. I feel relieved knowing that I’ll receive an email(probably with a solution) from you guys for all my queries. Thank you Aravisian and Swarfendor.
If this is a NiCad battery then discharge and recharge is correct, not with a Lithium-Ion battery - experienced this at work. On Ni-Cads they had a memory issue that meant you had to charge and drain 3 times on install - If you do this with a Lithium-Ion battery it kills it - and that’s what happened to me when I purchased for the organisation a Toshiba battery - the supplier told me to run the battery down then charge it up 3 times - the battery died! After the first element had been done!
From what I know of Lithium chemistry, no lower than 20% state of charge (~3.7 volts/cell). The batteries last longer if you keep them minimum at 40% state of charge (~3.8 volts/cell). Also don’t keep them fully charged too long and charging up to 95% state of charge is healthier than 100% (although I do leave my laptop plugged-in, since the life hit from 95% vs 100% isn’t as bad as discharging too low).
https://batteryuniversity.com/index.php/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
Yes that is correct - I only discovered the battery level bit having found it on a US Fire Service web page!
You mean having the laptop always plugged in harms the battery? The laptop takes power from the power source when the battery is charged 100%, right?
Now I am tensed. I always use the laptop plugged in and the battery level will always be 100%
My laptop just now has shut down even if battery percentage is 48%. What does this mean?
@capriciousduck. Will it boot in that state or is battery dead after showing 48%?
If dead then charge it up fully. You need to do at least a full charge cycle dead to 100% to calibrate battery meter.
@swarfendor437 is right old NiCd betteries had memory which meant full charge voltage reduced over time unless subjected to a full discharge now and again. Not many PC’s will have NiCd batteries these days but some small domestic appliances do.
My Lenovo (Windows) has an Energy Management app which allows you choice of best battery performance or best battery health. I use the latter setting which maintains charge at 60% on a.c. Same app allows you to perform a battery calibration cycle, then returns to chosen otimisation at the end, but not seen anything similar on Linux (yet).
Once it got shut down, I press the power button and it started booting and then showed 48% battery after fully booting up. I’m confused. Can you please me some steps on what to do now?
You are still on battery (not a.c.) right?
If so see if it runs down below 48%
If it immediately dies again on battery still showing 48% (or near) then meter is showing 0% as 48% i.e. is uncalibrated. You have to connect to a.c. and fully charge the battery.
Ok. Now I am again discharging it. I’ll let you know how it goes this time.
And do you know how can I set that thing like…the charging should stop once it reaches 80% and start charging once it falls below 30%(say)?
As I mentioned above, I have not found a similar battery health app or setting to do that on Zorin yet. I tend to run with a.c. connected, I think that is marginally better running at 100% than the alternative of it running too low. I have always done that on work laptops and not had battery issues. Also see @carmar does same, but is not perfect.
@capriciousduck - see Figure 6 on the link I posted. The best life for a lithium is when kept between 65%-75% SOC. But is operating in a 10% SOC range realistic? As with everything in life, one picks a tradeoff. For example, 50%-100% SOC looks decent on that graph. As zabadabadoo noted, worry more about discharging too low rather than worrying about always keeping at 100%.
If your battery died at 48%, and it is indeed the battery, then that is voltage sag. When batteries get old/abused, they will show voltage unloaded, but the moment you put a load on them, they can’t deliver current (i.e., voltage drops sharply). Basically, it means you don’t want to discharge it too low. I don’t take my laptop anywhere, do I don’t know or care if it has voltage sag. Again, having voltage sag doesn’t mean the battery is useless, just that you don’t know the exact SOC when it will drop voltage.
PS - Voltage sag is almost always shown by batteries being discharged too low. Which is another reason to not worry about the 100% SOC.
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@carmar. From that it looks like it may continue to discharge down below 48%.
Hope @capriciousduck lets us know the bottom figure after which it is confirmed as dead. Could that be 0% with a bit of luck maybe.