Windows 24H2 and Battery Calibration

hsehestedt · Sep 9, 2024

I have an older HP laptop, but the battery has already been replaced once and has, up until yesterday, performed perfectly. Suddenly, yesterday, the battery went from 100% down to 5% where the system shuts down in under 30 minutes. I performed a recalibration and now it is working perfectly again.

Today, I had the exact same problem on a Windows tablet. I am performing the recalibration right now.

I find it just a bit too much of a coincidence that this happened on two machines practically simultaneously. I'm curious to know if anyone else has been seeing this issue recently.

To recalibrate:

Charge the laptop fully. Keep it plugged in for another hour to allow battery to cool if it has been charging a while. Unplug the AC power. Take note of all your sleep settings so you can change back later, but set everything to prevent sleep or hibernation. Allow the system to run until it shuts down. Power back on and enter Safe Mode.

NOTE: If the laptop will not power on, you may need to briefly apply AC power.

Once in Safe Mode, allow it to run again until it shuts down.

NOTE: On my tablet, I went into safe mode after the computer claimed my battery was empty and the system shutdown. It has now been running in Safe Mode for OVER 4 HOURS (!!!) and is still going. I'm just waiting for it to die as I type this. This clearly indicates how out of whack the calibration was.

Plug in your AC power adapter and allow the laptop to fully charge. DO NOT turn on the laptop until it is fully charged.

Done.

glasskuter · Sep 9, 2024

@hsehestedt Just curious. I'm assuming you feel this is related to 24h2 in some way? Did it happen on both devices right after you installed 24h2?
I saw this over on WindowsCentral in it's review of 24h2 so the upgrade definitely made changes to power.

Microsoft is reworking how battery saver and power options work with version 24H2, introducing a new "Energy Saver" mode that applies to both PCs with batteries and PCs without.

The new Energy Saver mode will reduce your PC's energy consumption by reducing system performance. This should help extend battery life on laptops and reduce the power pulled from the wall on desktop PCs.

When enabled, desktop PCs will even see an energy-saver icon in the system tray, similar to the battery life indicator on laptops, just without a battery percentage. The goal of Energy Saver is to make your PC more energy efficient, reducing your carbon footprint.

Microsoft has also added more power controls to the Power & battery area in the modern Settings app. You can now set lid and power button controls and even configure when your PC enters hibernate after a set amount of time.

hsehestedt · Sep 9, 2024

glasskuter said:
I'm assuming you feel this is related to 24h2 in some way?

Yes, that thought is rattling around in my skull. Both of those machines were just upgraded to the latest RP build. I was mainly just soliciting responses to see if anyone else has run into this. If a lot of people are seeing this, then maybe something MS has changed is to blame. But if nobody else is encountering it, then maybe it really is an odd coincidence.

BTW, that tablet that said the battery was depleted is STILL running in safe mode now. It has been running for about 5 hours now AFTER Windows claimed the battery to be depleted. It's also not sitting idle. I have it actively running tasks to make sure the CPU does not go to sleep. I have no control over screen brightness in Safe Mode, but I estimate it is somewhere around 70% of max brightness.

As for my laptop that claimed to go from 100% to 0% in 30 minutes, after the recalibration it is now running flawlessly and I get many good hours on a charge.

EDIT: Just for completeness, the build both machines are running is 26100.1591. That is until tomorrow (patch Tuesday).

kelper · Sep 10, 2024

Have you run a battery report? It would be very interesting to see if the battery capacity has miraculously increased and the 'wear' figure reduced.

I'm sure you know how to run it but here are instructions for anyone who has never done this.

Open Start.
Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.
Type the following command to create a battery report on Windows 11 and press Enter: powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\battery_report.html"

Steve C · Sep 10, 2024

hsehestedt said:
I have an older HP laptop, but the battery has already been replaced once and has, up until yesterday, performed perfectly. Suddenly, yesterday, the battery went from 100% down to 5% where the system shuts down in under 30 minutes. I performed a recalibration and now it is working perfectly again.

Today, I had the exact same problem on a Windows tablet. I am performing the recalibration right now.

I find it just a bit too much of a coincidence that this happened on two machines practically simultaneously. I'm curious to know if anyone else has been seeing this issue recently.

To recalibrate:

Charge the laptop fully. Keep it plugged in for another hour to allow battery to cool if it has been charging a while. Unplug the AC power. Take note of all your sleep settings so you can change back later, but set everything to prevent sleep or hibernation. Allow the system to run until it shuts down. Power back on and enter Safe Mode.

NOTE: If the laptop will not power on, you may need to briefly apply AC power.

Once in Safe Mode, allow it to run again until it shuts down.

NOTE: On my tablet, I went into safe mode after the computer claimed my battery was empty and the system shutdown. It has now been running in Safe Mode for OVER 4 HOURS (!!!) and is still going. I'm just waiting for it to die as I type this. This clearly indicates how out of whack the calibration was.

Plug in your AC power adapter and allow the laptop to fully charge. DO NOT turn on the laptop until it is fully charged.

Done.

Using safe mode is an interesting tip to try

hsehestedt · Sep 10, 2024

Steve C said:
Using safe mode is an interesting tip to try

Thanks, Steve. You know, I realize now that maybe I should have explained why Safe Mode helps here. This is because in Safe Mode Windows does not monitor the battery level and performs no shutdown. The system will simply cut power via hardware when the battery reaches a predetermined voltage.

hsehestedt · Sep 10, 2024

kelper said:
Have you run a battery report? It would be very interesting to see if the battery capacity has miraculously increased and the 'wear' figure reduced.

I'm sure you know how to run it but here are instructions for anyone who has never done this.

Open Start.

Search for Command Prompt, right-click the top result, and select the Run as administrator option.

Type the following command to create a battery report on Windows 11 and press Enter: powercfg /batteryreport /output "C:\battery_report.html"

You know, that's a good idea. Thanks for that. The only problem is that I have already recalibrated now so I don't know if a battery report will show anything retroactively.

kelper · Sep 10, 2024

It includes a history.

kelper · Sep 10, 2024

I'm now running in safe mode with networking. Wifi won't work but I have an ethernet to USB adapter. My laptop went to critical low battery and would not start. So I briefly applied the charger and restarted into boot mode. If not logged in holding shift down while clicking on restart just took me back to the login screen.
Laptop has been running for well over twenty minutes. Will post an update when it has died again.

kelper · Sep 10, 2024

My laptop died after 23 minutes. Now with the charger connected, the battery is at 1%.

Steve C · Sep 10, 2024

hsehestedt said:
Thanks, Steve. You know, I realize now that maybe I should have explained why Safe Mode helps here. This is because in Safe Mode Windows does not monitor the battery level and performs no shutdown. The system will simply cut power via hardware when the battery reaches a predetermined voltage.

Why not just enter safe mode and leave it until the laptop shuts down?

kelper · Sep 10, 2024

Because he is showing that safe mode gives a lot more time on battery after Windows thinks the battery is flat. In his case hours. If he just started in safe mode he would not know how badly the battery was calibrated.

Bree · Sep 10, 2024

hsehestedt said:
I don't know if a battery report will show anything retroactively.

kelper said:
It includes a history.

The Usage history and the Battery capacity history goes back to the first date it was recorded. One of my PCs has history back to October 2021 when I first installed its Windows 11.

The detailed usage stats for Power states and Battery drains can go back for up to 14 days if you use:
powercfg /batteryreport /duration 14

kelper · Sep 10, 2024

Yikes! Does that mean you have not installed Windows in all that time, just upgraded versions?

Bree · Sep 10, 2024

kelper said:
Yikes! Does that mean you have not installed Windows in all that time, just upgraded versions?

Yes, what's wrong with that? I have a regime of regular system clean ups, all my PCs seem to run as well today as they did when first installed. This is my most extreme example....

Bree said:
In fact my System One in 'My Computers' below is running an OS that started life on my trusty old W7 laptop, took the upgrade to W10 when it was launched, and subsequently every Windows 10 feature update since then up to 2021, that's when I migrated the OS to its new home. There it got the Windows 11 upgrade, followed by the 22H2 and 23H2 feature updates. If it were to show any signs of slowing down under the weight of 'junk' accumulated through serial upgrades it would have done so by now. After more than a decade of upgrades it still feels like a fresh install.

Returning to Win 11 - post #9