Laptop battery issues; going bad or power hungry process?

[tviceman]

Windows 7 POWERCFG command line

Does anyone here know how accurate this is? Lately my laptop battery life took a sudden nosedive from about 1 1/2 hours to about 20 minutes on a full charge. When I run the "powercfg -energy" command, it tells me that my last full charge maxed out the design capacity of the battery, like so:

Battery:Battery Information
Battery ID 3658QSony PA3534U
Manufacturer Sony
Serial Number 3658Q
Chemistry Li-I
Long Term 1
Design Capacity 79920
Last Full Charge 79920

So is this check somewhat accurate and telling me that there is a system process creating a huge drain on the battery, or is the check likely inaccurate and my battery is going bad?

 

[Fardringle]

How old is the battery? In general, laptop batteries are good for about a year before they start losing capacity and should be replaced.

 

[corkyg]

Any time after continuous use for 2 years or more, you are reaching time to replace. My batteries last longer because I only use them when on travel. At home, the laptop is on A/C power with the battery removed and stored.

 

[tviceman]

The laptop was purchased a little more than 2 years ago. Somewhat regular use of the battery (not being plugged into a wall socket) didn't begin until about a year ago, but at most is run off the battery twice per week.

Again, I'm just asking how accurate the powercfg -energy command line switch is. As it stands, it tells me my battery is still charging to maximum capacity, which is indicating to me that there is a process sucking up my battery power OR I have something wrong with my power saving options....

 

[corkyg]

You are in the phase where battery power is reduced. It is simply the normal decay of the battery's life and capacity.

 

[Puppies04]

Design Capacity 79920 Last Full Charge 79920

There is no way a 2 year old laptop battery is still performing at 100% efficiency (most i have owned get replaced somewhere berween 1-2 years), so the answer to your question is no that check is not somewhat accurate.