Your laptop’s usability depends on the condition of its battery. If the battery is worn out, the laptop loses one of its main qualities – mobility – and becomes a desktop computer.
Battery life is one of the important parameters that guide us when choosing a laptop. However, it isn’t impossible that the battery will run down faster over time.
Every battery, over time, loses its ability to hold a charge. Battery performance can be affected by how you use it, so it’s important to keep an eye on the battery health of your laptop. Windows 10 allows you to check the condition of your laptop, which will help you make the necessary changes to keep your device performing well.
Verifying that your laptop is working properly isn’t a complicated process. You must have access to an administrator account if your laptop is used by someone else.
Windows 10 has a full battery diagnostic feature for your device. The test shows its actual capacity at the time of testing, as well as other information that will allow you to improve your laptop’s battery life.
So, here is how to check battery health on Windows 10.
How to check the battery health on a Windows 10 laptop
You don’t need special software to check your laptop’s battery health. In Windows 10, you can start a battery diagnostic using a system command:
- First of all, press “Win” on your keyboard or click on the “Start” menu button.
- Then, enter “cmd” in the text bar.
- Right-click the “Command Prompt” app and select “Run as administrator”.
- The command line window opens. At the flashing white cursor, enter the command:
- powercfg /batteryreport /output “C:\diagnostic_battery.html”
- After that, press “Enter” to run the laptop battery report.
- After a few seconds a message will appear confirming that the report has been generated: C:\diagnostic_battery.html. This is where the detailed information about your battery is located.
Once you have completed these steps, you will be able to check the battery on a Windows 10 laptop.
How to analyze the battery health report
The report provided by Windows 10 is called the “Battery Report”. After information about your laptop’s configuration, a diagnosis of the battery itself follows.
Under “Installed batteries”, Windows 10 reports the actual battery capacity (Full charging capacity). This is followed by information about the original battery capacity (when you purchased the device).
After two years of use, a battery normally loses 30 to 40% of its original capacity.
A little further down in the detailed report is the “Battery Capacity History” chart, which shows how much battery capacity has dropped since you bought your computer.
How to evaluate the battery life of a laptop
The Recent Usage and Battery Usage tables provide an encrypted or graphical report of how the battery has been used over the past few days. This data allows you to check whether the battery is charging properly when the laptop is plugged in and whether it’s discharging too quickly when running on battery power.
The last section of the report (Battery Life Estimate) provides a rough estimate of your laptop’s actual battery life. In this table, Windows 10 first calculates usage time based on actual current battery capacity (At Full Charge column).
It’s always a useful thing to know how much battery life you have left on your laptop. This way, you will be aware of when you should recharge it. The best thing you can do is to use your battery properly and keep an eye on its condition. These habits will help you increase the battery life of your laptop.
