Most laptop batteries are consumable parts. After a few hundred charge cycles they start to fade, and the signs are easy to miss until the day your laptop dies in the middle of something important. Here are the five things we check first when a customer brings a laptop into the shop with battery trouble.
1. The percentage drops in big jumps
A healthy battery drains smoothly. If yours falls from 60% to 30% in a few minutes, the cells can no longer hold a steady charge and the meter is guessing. This is usually the first sign, and it only gets worse.
2. It shuts down before it reaches zero
A laptop that switches off at 15 or 20 percent is protecting itself from a cell that can no longer deliver enough power. Windows and macOS both try to compensate, but once shutdowns start they tend to become more frequent.
3. It gets noticeably warm while charging
Some warmth is normal. A battery that makes the palm rest uncomfortably hot, or a fan that runs flat out whenever the charger is plugged in, is worth having looked at sooner rather than later.
4. The case is starting to bulge
This one matters. A swollen battery can push the trackpad up, split the case seams or stop the laptop sitting flat on a desk. If you can see any bulging, stop charging it and bring it in. Swollen cells should not be left inside a laptop.
5. It only works on mains power
The final stage: unplug the charger and the laptop dies instantly. At this point the battery is doing nothing at all, and on many machines it can also hold back performance, because the processor cannot draw peak power from the mains adapter alone.
What we do about it
A battery replacement is one of the quickest jobs we do. We run a full health report first, so you can see the real capacity before deciding, and every replacement is fitted in-house at our Badger Hill workshop with a warranty on parts and labour. If any of the signs above sound familiar, pop in or book online and we will take a look the same day.