How To Check Your Windows Laptop Battery Health

Do you know that laptop batteries deplete in performance overtime? Some of the batteries last longer than others but none of them last forever. This depletion is commonly observed when a laptop battery does not last as long as it used to be in the first year(s) of its usage. If your laptop battery is only able to last just ten or fifteen minutes then it is obvious you it is time to replace it but, if your laptop battery can still last for a while and you really want to know the current health of the battery, then you can use the Windows built in battery checker tool to see the battery’s performance. Here is how to go about it.

If You Are Using Windows 7

Launch the Command Prompt and input the following command below;

powercfg/energy

The command will take some time to complete the execution and when it has finished, it will inform you where it has saved the energy result. Open the result in your preferred browser and take a look at the Battery Information section. The information you need to know how fine your battery is going is the value of the Design Capacity including the value of the Full Charge.

You can take a look at the screenshot below showing you that the full charge is higher than the design capacity on the system we used for this experiment. The battery in the system is not the original one that came with the laptop, it is a replacement which and it charges more than the right capacity for a battery that should be used with the said.

If your laptop full charge value is significantly lesser than the design capacity, then your battery is depleting gradually. If it has gotten very low, you might want to replace it. A battery might still be able to last as long as one hour and unexpectedly stop charging. 

If you are using Windows 8 & 10

In Windows 8 & 10, open the Command Prompt and input the following command;

powercfg/batteryreport

Wait for some seconds for the result to generated and after that open it in your preferred browser. Windows 8 & 10 will give you a much easier formatted result to read. Take a look at the “Battery life estimates” portion and match the full charge with the battery design capacity. If the full charge of the battery has gotten very low, then you might want to start getting a replacement for your system. The result shown below shows what you will see when the laptop battery is dead and is no longer charging.

If you ever stop using a laptop and need you need to store it for an prolonged period of time, you should always take the battery out before packing it out.