How to Recondition Your Laptop Battery?

A few days ago, my laptop battery started to give up on me. The power indicator would flash and create a weird “buzzing” sound while the laptop’s plugged into outlet power. Also, it seemed as if the power wasn’t connected at all sometime.

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My solution to that? Calibrating the battery. I explored Google and a variety of other sources to calibrate or recondition laptop batteries. To no avail, I stopped my search there and referred to the HP manufacturer’s handbook.

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Surprisingly, it offered some really helpful laptop battery calibration and battery maintenance tips, which I’d like to share with you:
Calibrating a Laptop Battery Pack
When to Calibrate

• Even if a battery pack is heavily used, it should not be necessary to calibrate it more than once a month. It is not necessary to calibrate a new battery pack befo  first use. However, make sure that the battery pack is fully charged, especially if it is the only power source.

Calibrate the battery pack under the following conditions:

• When the battery status display seems inaccurate.
• When you observe a significant change in normal battery
  run time.
• When the battery pack has not been used for one month
  or more.

How to Calibrate
To calibrate a battery pack, you must fully charge, fully discharge, and then fully recharge the battery pack.

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Charging the Battery Pack
Fully charge the battery pack when the notebook is in use. To
charge the battery pack:

1. Insert the battery pack into the notebook.
2. Connect the notebook to external power through an AC adapter. (The battery light turns on)

The battery light turns off when the battery pack is fully charged.

Disabling Hibernation

To fully discharge the battery pack, disable Hibernation temporarily.
To disable Hibernation:

• Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar or access Power Options > Hibernate, and clear the Enable Hibernate support check box.

Discharging the Battery Pack
After the battery light turns off, which indicates that the battery
pack is fully charged, begin discharging the battery pack.
To fully discharge the battery pack:

1. Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar, or select Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options > Power Schemes.
2. Write down the 3 settings in the Plugged In column and the settings in the Running on Batteries column, so you can reset them after calibration.
3. Select the drop-down lists and set all 6 options in both columns to Never.
4. Select the OK button.
5. Disconnect the notebook from the external power source, but do not turn off the notebook.
6. Run the notebook on battery power until the battery pack is fully discharged.

The battery light begins to blink when the battery pack has discharged to a low-battery condition. When the battery pack is fully discharged, the power/Standby light turns off and the notebook shuts down.
Recharging the Battery Pack

1. Connect the notebook to external power and keep the notebook connected until the battery pack is fully recharged and the battery light turns off. You can use the notebook while the battery pack is recharging, but the battery pack will charge faster if the notebook is turned off.
2. Select the Power Meter icon on the taskbar or select Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance > Power Options > Power Schemes.
3. Reenter the 3 settings you wrote down for the 3 options in the Plugged In column and for the 3 options in the Running on Batteries column.
4. Select the OK button.