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How to check your laptop battery health (Windows 7, 8, and 10)

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Laptop batteries can last a year to several years based on usage, and if you are always on the go, you may not be able to tell if you are not getting the life out of your laptop battery the way that you used to. You can get the information on your laptop battery health by running a command at the command prompt:

Windows 7

Click Start button and type cmd in the Search programs and files box
Right click on cmd.exe listed at the top of the Start menu and click Run as administrator
Next type powercfg -energy in the command prompt and press Enter

This will generate a report called energy-report.html located in the Windows\system32 folder on your C: drive. Open and scroll down to the Battery Information section:

Windows 8 and 10

Click Start button and type cmd into the dialog box and hit enter.
Next, type powercfg /batteryreport and hit enter.

This will generate a report called battery-report.html located in the Users\Your Username folder on your C: drive. Open and scroll down to the Battery Information section:

This report will give you a lot of stats, but the one you want to pay the most attention to is the Design Capacity versus the Full Charge Capacity:

laptop battery information

The Design Capacity is the original strength of the battery and the Full Change Capacity is performance you are currently getting. As the Full Charge Capacity number goes down, the less battery life you will get. If the Full Change Capacity is much lower than the Design Capacity, it’s time for a new battery. Confusing? Frankenstein Computers is here to help with ordering and installation of replacement parts.

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