How to check your laptop's battery status

 

La your laptop battery It is one of the most important components and, at the same time, one of the ones that deteriorates the most over time. With each charge and discharge cycle, its capacity is reduced, affecting the device autonomy. Therefore, it is essential to know its condition and wear in order to make informed decisions about its maintenance or maybe value the possibility of a replacement.

Windows offers us various ways to Check battery health, from built-in system tools to third-party software that provides more detailed information. In this article, we explain how you can find out the current status of your laptop battery and what to do to extend its life.

Why is it important to know the status of the battery?

Laptop batteries are designed to withstand a limited number of charge and discharge cycles. With use, its original capacity decreases, which translates into less autonomy. These are some of the warning signs that warn us of a worrying wear of the battery:

• Shorter battery life: The charge runs out faster than normal.
• Loss of load capacity: Even when charged to 100%, the battery lasts less time.
• Unexpected power outages: The laptop may shut down suddenly without warning.
• Performance issues: Poor battery condition can affect overall system performance.

How to generate a battery report in Windows

Here's a handy resource that every user should know about: Windows includes a tool that allows you to generate a detailed report on the health of your laptop's battery. To generate this report, just follow these steps:

1. First we use the keyboard shortcut Windows + X and, in the list of options, we select Windows PowerShell (Administrator).
2. Then we write the following command and press Enter: powercfg /batteryreport /output C:\battery-report.html
3. Then we opened the File Explorer and we go to the unit C:.
4. There we search and open the file «battery-report.html» with our web browser.

This report contains really useful information such as the original and current battery capacity, the number of charge cycles consumed and a complete usage history.

Other tools to check the battery

Although this tool works really well, there are other options that we can use to check the health of your laptop's battery. Some of them offer us a interface more visual or more detailed information. These are the third-party tools that can help us the most:

• BatteryInfoView: Displays key data about the battery, such as its original and current capacity.
• BatteryMon: Generates real-time graphs on charging capacity and consumption.
• HWiNFO32: Provides advanced information about your hardware, including the battery.

Tips for extending battery life

But just knowing the status of your laptop's battery is not enough. It is also important to know What to do to maximize its lifespanHere are some useful tips:

• Avoid discharging the battery completely. Ideally, the charge level should be kept between 20% and 80%.
• Reduce screen brightness, since less lighting consumes less energy.
• Disable unnecessary functions. For example, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi can consume extra battery when they are not needed.
• Use power saving mode that Windows offers.
• Avoid excessive heat, since the high temperatures can accelerate battery deterioration.

But sometimes, the battery is so worn out that these measures will hardly help us. When it reaches these extremes (your laptop battery shows significant wear and its autonomy is no longer sufficient for normal use), it may be necessary to replace it. time to consider replacing it.

 

In summary: Knowing the status of a laptop battery is essential for ensure its proper functioning and extend its useful life. Windows allows you to get a detailed report of the battery status with a simple command, but there are also third-party tools that can provide additional information. By applying good usage and maintenance practices, it is possible to optimize battery performance and avoid premature battery replacement.