Apparent huge loss in battery health after ~ 4 months - is this normal?

[MiracleDinner]

Hi,

About four months ago I purchased the 15.6" Elimina Pro laptop from PCSpecialist, and have been overall very satisfied with my purchase.

I have been looking at my battery health from time to time (via a combination of "powercfg /batteryreport" on Windows 11 and the "Power Statistics" app on Ubuntu Focal Fossa - I dual boot and both tools have been consistent with each other the whole time) and until very recently my battery heath was at 100%. At first I used the "High Capacity Mode" in the Control Centre that came pre-installed on my laptop but about 2 or 3 months in I changed to "Stationary Mode" which I have been using ever since. That control centre is unavailable in Ubuntu though, so I'm not sure if my setting had any effect on how my laptop battery was used when in Ubuntu - I did notice much better battery time on Ubuntu than Windows (with TLP). My battery capacity was always 46, 740 mWh (the design capacity according to Ubuntu Power Statistics), but around 3 days ago I noticed it had fallen to 42, 180 mWh, which I thought quite odd so I earlier today tried the trick of "recalibrating" a battery by unplugging my laptop and deliberately allowing it to drain to 0%, and then recharging it to 100%, and now my battery capacity is reportedly 38, 760 mWh at 100%.

I would like to ask, is the battery health degradation reported by these tools really true and if so, why is my battery health degrading so fast? (I don't imagine dual booting Ubuntu is really responsible for this? I do play games, of course, on my laptop, but I often keep an eye on my CPU, GPU, and SSD temperatures and haven't noticed them overheating, my SSD temps are almost always about 40 degrees celcius whilst my CPU and GPU temps do not usually go higher than the low eighties - 90 at the very most. I used to use the laptop without being plugged in a fair amount during the first 2 months, perhaps one charge cycle a day, but in the last 2 months or so my laptop has almost always been plugged in when in use, I certainly don't imagine I have been through enough charge cycles to lose 20% or so of my battery capacity, and if it were true, how come it has happened in the course of only 3 or so days?)

Thanks in advance for any advise

Order specs below:

Chassis & Display Elimina Pro Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD 144Hz 72% NTSC LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™ i7 Eight Core Processor 11800H (2.3GHz, 4.6GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM) 16GB Corsair 2666MHz SODIMM DDR4 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1650 - 4.0GB GDDR6 Video RAM - DirectX® 12.1
1st M.2 SSD Drive 1TB PCS PCIe M.2 SSD (2200 MB/R, 1500 MB/W)
Memory Card Reader Integrated 3 in 1 Card Reader (Full Size SD / SDHC / SDXC)
AC Adaptor 1 x 120W
AC Adaptor Power Cable 1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Battery Elimina Pro Series Integrated 46Wh Lithium Ion Battery
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack Bluetooth & Wireless GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2.4 Gbps) + BT 5.0
USB/Thunderbolt Options 1 x USB 3.1 PORT (Type C) + 2 x USB 3.1 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Keyboard Language ELIMINA PRO SERIES RGB BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD
Operating System Windows 11 Home 64 Bit - inc. Single Licence [KUK-00003]
Operating System Language United Kingdom - English Language
Windows Recovery Media Windows 10/11 Multi-Language Recovery Image - Unlimited Downloads from Online Account
Office Software FREE 30 Day Trial of Microsoft 365® (Operating System Required)
Anti-Virus BullGuard™ Internet Security - Free 90 Day License inc. Gamer Mode
Browser Google Chrome™
Notebook Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 8 working days
Welcome Book PCSpecialist Welcome Book - United Kingdom & Republic of Ireland

 

[SpyderTracks]

It all depends on usage, there are various factors:

Is the laptop being shutdown at the end of a session, or put into sleep? Remember that windows by default will hibernate the device when selecting shutdown, not sure what that fork of Linux will do.

They're not designed to be solely used on battery and will wear quickly in that scenario. With a dedicated GPU, the power requirement is going to devastate the battery life pretty rapidly.

I've found that if I leave it plugged in after shutdown, it's best to turn off the mains as otherwise it will constantly trickle charge it and further reduce battery life.

All that being said, it could well have been a dud.

But I believe the warranty on batteries is 6 months anyway, so you should still be covered:

7.7	Laptop Batteries come with a maximum 6 month warranty, regardless of which warranty option is purchased.

PCSPECIALIST - Terms & Conditions

General Terms & Conditions of business.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

If it's a detachable battery, you should be able to just RMA the battery itself, if it's built in, you may need to RMA the whole device.

 

[MiracleDinner]

It all depends on usage, there are various factors:

Is the laptop being shutdown at the end of a session, or put into sleep? Remember that windows by default will hibernate the device when selecting shutdown, not sure what that fork of Linux will do.

They're not designed to be solely used on battery and will wear quickly in that scenario. With a dedicated GPU, the power requirement is going to devastate the battery life pretty rapidly.

I've found that if I leave it plugged in after shutdown, it's best to turn off the mains as otherwise it will constantly trickle charge it and further reduce battery life.

All that being said, it could well have been a dud.

But I believe the warranty on batteries is 6 months anyway, so you should still be covered:

7.7	Laptop Batteries come with a maximum 6 month warranty, regardless of which warranty option is purchased.

PCSPECIALIST - Terms & Conditions

General Terms & Conditions of business.

www.pcspecialist.co.uk

If it's a detachable battery, you should be able to just RMA the battery itself, if it's built in, you may need to RMA the whole device.

Mostly shut down and left plugged into the mains. I didn't know that would be risky to battery health (I did it a lot with other devices without experiencing much issue - a Toshiba Satellite laptop I got in 2014 is still at about 60% battery health and has spent a lot of its lifespan plugged into the mains), and I've been doing it for pretty much the whole time I've had this laptop, which as stated in OP, I only saw this apparent battery health loss in the last 3 days or so which is really odd.

I disabled Fast Boot on Windows after finding out that it prevented my WiFi card from working in Ubuntu, I think this may disable "windows by default will hibernate when selecting shutdown" but I did also use the "hibernate" option in windows a fair amount prior to installing the dual boot. I'm also not entirely sure what Ubuntu does but I haven't heard from online that Ubuntu is responsible for rapidly degrading battery health (I also only installed the Ubuntu dual boot on 26/02/2022.)

As I said it was only really 1 charge cycle per day that I used up in the first 2 months or so and in the last 2 months it's been plugged in almost always. I also pretty much never gamed on battery, mostly just light web browsing and coding which I don't believe uses the dedicated GPU by default, if it did I probably would have noticed my laptop turning off quite quickly

Thank you very, very much for bringing to my attention the 6 month battery warranty. I may RMA the battery if I cannot find whether / why my battery has degraded so fast. As the specs at the bottom of OP do say, the battery is "integrated", I'm not sure if that means I'll need to RMA the whole notebook but I suppose I can probably ask PCS that question.

 

[SpyderTracks]

(I did it a lot with other devices without experiencing much issue - a Toshiba Satellite laptop I got in 2014 is still at about 60% battery health and has spent a lot of its lifespan plugged into the mains)

Toshiba satellite is not a gaming laptop right? Completely different build types, can't compare the two.

I think this may disable "windows by default will hibernate when selecting shutdown"

Yes, it does indeed, that's a good thing.

As the specs at the bottom of OP do say, the battery is "integrated", I'm not sure if that means I'll need to RMA the whole notebook but I suppose I can probably ask PCS that question.

That means it's built into the chassis, not modular. You'd need to query that with PCS if they'd be happy shipping a replacement for you to fit. It's often very easy, but not sure how they'd see that with regards to warranty.

If you go to My Returns in your online account, you have the option to RMA a singular component in the build, if it shows the battery as an option then PCS should be fine allowing you to install it.

 

[MiracleDinner]

Toshiba satellite is not a gaming laptop right? Completely different build types, can't compare the two.

No it wasn't a gaming laptop and had integrated graphics (though I did game on it)... but it ran Windows 8.1 and I later stuck Ubuntu on it too, and I don't believe it had a fundamentally different type of battery (I believe these specs are what that machine had - lithium ion just like the Elimina Pro). I still usually get 1 to 2 hours on it and I think that its capacity is 60% according to the Windows "powercfg /batteryreport"

Whilst I appreciate my time may be a bit limited since it has been about 4 months since I ordered it and the battery warranty is 6 months, I don't think I want to RMA my battery as a first resort since even if I now realise I may not have been treating the battery optimally I still find it super hard to believe it was fine for all this time and then dropped from 46,740mWh to 38,760mWh in the space of 3 days. I'm no expert on laptop batteries but I feel it may instead be some error with how the laptop battery capacity is being measured by software. Is there anything else I can do to verify my battery's true capacity level?

 

[SpyderTracks]

Whilst I appreciate my time may be a bit limited since it has been about 4 months since I ordered it and the battery warranty is 6 months, I don't think I want to RMA my battery as a first resort since even if I now realise I may not have been treating the battery optimally I still find it super hard to believe it was fine for all this time and then dropped from 46,740mWh to 38,760mWh in the space of 3 days. I'm no expert on laptop batteries but I feel it may instead be some error with how the laptop battery capacity is being measured by software. Is there anything else I can do to verify my battery's true capacity level?

If it was just in Windows then I'd agree, but not if Linux is reporting the same thing as they independent metrics.

 

[MiracleDinner]

I just ran tests on both Linux and Windows and they both reported 38.8 Wh

Are you sure there is nothing else I can or should do before contacting PCS for a replacement battery?

 

[SpyderTracks]

I just ran tests on both Linux and Windows and they both reported 38.8 Wh

Are you sure there is nothing else I can or should do before contacting PCS for a replacement battery?

PCS may talk you through some tests but not any I'm aware of personally

 

[MiracleDinner]

I temporarily switched to High Capacity Mode today to investigate if the apparent capacity loss was because Stationary Mode caps the capacity to preserve health. That didn't work but now I'm back on Stationary Mode my laptop says the battery capacity is 42,180 mWh. Batteries can't un-degrade so I'm sure there must be a software inaccuracy instead of or in addition to physical degredation