How often do you recalibrate your batteries?

How do you recalibrate?

It's an option in BIOS. Choose it, and it will charge your battery up to full (it's faster to just start with your battery at full, so you can skip this step), then tell you to unplug the power cord and it will drain the battery until the notebook turns off. It's a very boring process and will take however long your maximum battery life is, so it's a good idea to only do it when you won't be needing your computer for a while. I do it overnight. And I think I've run the recalibration utility twice on the initial battery and once on my present one. You don't need to run it very often at all. Probably once every 3-4 months is sufficient.

Does it help with anything?

once a month is what i do /shrug thats just me tho

soulsaver

I've never calibrated my batteries before...

I don't think it helps with charging... rather, it just helps Windows and other programs know more accurately how much charge is left - meaning... after you use the computer for a while and the battery wears down, 100% isn't the 100% it used to be... or 80% isn't 80% like it used to be... so your battery will start giving you false readings about how much time you have left on battery. By re-calibrating, it will re-adjust the internal battery meter to read more accurately and tell you how much time you have left....

At least I think that's how it works.

I also recommend about once a month.

I do the same with my palm batteries as well.

more importantly, don't always use AC power, use it on battery power twice a week is good for the battery.

On Motorola cell phones after doing a "flash" which is sort of like a bios/OS upgrade it takes several charge cylces before the battery meter /life will read right.

Correct way to do those is do do a upgrade (Flash).. which wipes out the phones internal memory /OS.... Then charge the phone with it turned OFF to max charge... Then cycle/charge the battery several times which re-builds the data needed for the metering circuit.

Alot of people will complain about battery life until several cycles after a flash. (Upgrade of the the bios/OS)

it's because all lithium batteries deos take 3-5 charges in order for the battery to be fully charge.

I've recalibrated the battery in my W3V 5 times (every 2 months). The thing that worries me is that every time I recalibrate my battery, the battery wear increases by about 11%!! (I can't prove this to the nth degree as I only started noticing it at the 3rd calibration onwards....)

I'm up to 55% wear and it is about 10 months old Not going to recalibrate it anymore, and am gonna log a job with Asus

I do use the notebook off charge quite often though and have noticed that I'm getting less and less life from it

Li-Ion batteries lose approximately 20% of capacity per year depends on the temperature. it loss approximately 6% at 0 °C and 35% at 40°C.

Never, ever 'recalibrate' the battery just for the sake of it. A some of you have noticed deep discharging a li-ion battery will hurt its maximum capacity. Only use that option in the BIOS if the reporting of remaining battery life in Windows start to get screwy. It only 'recalibrates' the battery's gauges of maximum and minimum capacity, not the battery itself in any positive way. The best way to keep a li-ion happy is just to use it normally. Dont deplete it completely if it can be avoided, and don't store at full capacity in a hot environment for prolonged periods of time.

Unfortunately for me, there are lots of times I am away from a power point, so the battery does a workout very often (oft to the point of the 10% left coming up).

Hence the almost two monthly calibration, come the end of that period, it says the battery is 85%-90% full, but stops charging.

I think I will need to go get my battery checked soon by Asus...

Down to the default 10% warning should be fine. Too many people, though, figure out the 'clever' things that disabling the warning and automatic shutdown can apparently give more time than the tiny remaining percentage would indicate. That way is sure to kill a battery faster than you can say 'discharge'. A li-ion battery has circuitry that cut the power when the voltage drops below a certain threshold. At some level of discharge before this point using it further will be detrimental to maximum capacity. Oh, and don't leave a depleted battery for too long without charging it either. Self-discharge can cause the protection circuitry to trip and prevent it from ever working again. If used all the way down to the default Windows shutdown value at 3%, even a week can be too much and two is pushing it.
Well, then it is full. The only thing the 'recalibrate' get you is that the next time you turn it on is that what was 90% is now seen as 100% but the max capacity is reduced. From the way you say that you use it though, it sounds like it is deteriorating at an exaggerated pace. I don't know about Asus specifically, but many other batteries don’t need the full depletion for the recalibration to take effect. HP batteries trigger this circuitry at 5%, for example.
Perhaps you should. You may have gotten a less than perfect specimen there, and if so, you should get it replaced.

A battery that was depleted down to 20% twice a day for a year, would most likely be in significantly better shape than one in a notebook that was charged the first day and then only used only on AC power for the same length of time each day as the other one. Nominal capacity after a year of moderate use (~300 discharges) should be at or batter than 80% of full capacity. Doing any of the 'stupid stuff' (heat, deep discharges, leaving at full capacity) could cause this to halve.

Nah, working on much too important things to not save and follow the standard default instructions.

I recalibrate so that I have an idea of how long I can work, and even then sometimes that figure is wrong but it's not an exact science, depending on CPU performance, backlight, etc.

I've already called them up and will get them to check the battery next week, maybe getting it replaced if faulty. I wouldn't have worried too much about it as all batteries do die in the end, but as it's impacting on my work, I'll need to get it fixed.

As an example, this morning on a full charge, on full power, 50% backlight and mostly RAM related work rather than CD or HDD) my battery lasted 30 minutes It used to last of at least 2-3 hours. That's on a notebook that was bought in July last year. (Doesn't necessarily mean the battery was that young)

Heh. Pherhaps it's your usage pattern then. Or a combination. Oh well, C'est la Vie, or whatever. Not everyone can be the ideal user, which is basically:

*Doesn't totally deplete the battery.
*Charges often.
*Dosen't leave the notebook fully charged for long.
*Uses a light and relatively constant load most of the time.
*Has 22ºC airconditioned office facilities.

Luckily I'm not him either. All work and no fun would make my W3 a dull boy.

Yes, nothing is perfect, but the W3 has been a such a boon to have. It has paid for itself many times over for me

Sad thing is, I am waiting to see what the new 13.3incher is like. I almost went with a Sony SZ, but will hold out for the Asus one I think....