I got a new battery and it seems to drop the charge in every 5 minutes. before returning it, I want to deplete it and recharge it.

So what do I hook it up to to deplete the charge quickly???

I'd just run a performance benchmark test, that pushes the graphics card...that should burn through the charge pretty quick:

http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm

Either that or run a burn in test:

http://www.passmark.com/products/bit.htm

The thing is, the battery will not work past 5 minutes without restart, so unless I don't mind restarting the notebook (I do), I need something that depletes it in 5-15 minutes...

Crysis

http://www.amazon.com/Crysis-Pc/dp/B000PS2XDO

Thanks for this post guys I was going through the same thing

I would guess that running "defrag" on drive C, if not done for long time, would keep drive C running and burn a lot of energy, but that is just a guess.

I was thinking of "putting it into the freezer" or "hook it up to a light bulb" kind of variety. Those might suck the energy down, running this or that programs won't do it in 5-10 minutes...

I was thinking of "putting it into the freezer" or "hook it up to a light bulb" kind of variety. Those might suck the energy down, running this or that programs won't do it in 5-10 minutes...

I don't think the freezer would do much. Trying to discharge it too quickly will cause too much heat, and it might melt...or worse cause a short and it catches on fire. (There were some Dell batteries that did that a few years back)

The plot thickens....

This morning I had a new idea. What if the battery is OK (ebay seller had a 100% rating) but the notebook doesn't recognize it correctly and that's why it keeps shutting down?

So I went into the power management, and changed the set up to never shut off. Sure enough, the notebook ran on battery for a good 40 minutes before turning off. The problem is that the notebook has 2 different power managements, one from Windows (where I tinkered) and one from the manufacturer.
I uninstalled the one from the manufacturer, and at this point I keep testing it, slowly depleting the battery. I am at 64% right now. Right now it still shuts off after 5 minutes, but no explanation why it ran OK for 40 minutes earlier....

I mentioned the freezer, because betteries don't like cold and lose charge faster in cold temperatures.

Edit: Looks like when it is playing a move, it keeps running but if I just browse the web, it doesn't like to stay on.

You might try this software:

http://www.passmark.com/products/batmon.htm

I've used it in the past, and while it's not 100%...it might help.

... betteries don't like cold and lose charge faster in cold temperatures. ...I would expect just the opposite to be true. All chemical processes slow down with temperature and that includes those making "self discharge." True a cold battery will deliver less power than a room temperature one for exactly the same reason. I keep new standard one use batteries in the ice box so they will still have nearly full energy stored a year later.

I would expect just the opposite to be true. All chemical processes slow down with temperature and that includes those making "self discharge." True a cold battery will deliver less power than a room temperature one for exactly the same reason. I keep new standard one use batteries in the ice box so they will still have nearly full energy stored a year later.

Billy, you still using an "ice box"? How far into the ruff of Brazil you call home?

Billy, you still using an "ice box"? How far into the ruff of Brazil you call home?No, but language is slow to change. When I was young it was an ice box and always will be called that by me. It was a good system. We had a cardboard square about one foot on the edge. Each corner was a different color with number showing the how many pounds of ice you wanted. You hung it so one corner was up on the porch so it was visible from the street. The horse pulling the ice wagon new when a where to stop so ice man just walked behind the wagon and after a glance at your request square skillfully chopped off your request from big blocks of ice. As he walked to your porch, the horse advance to the next house on the route. No CO2, no oil imported, and if the horse took a dump, it was picked up for the garden - the modern world's ways are not always better.

No, but language is slow to change. When I was young it was an ice box and always will be called that by me.

I remember the ice box. I just thought it amusing that someone else did also...

I remember the ice box. I just thought it amusing that someone else did also...I think my grandmother gave me my first lesson in physics. She keep the ice wrapped up in newspaper so it would last longer and complained that her ice box did not work well - milk went sour etc.

Interesting development. As long as I run the movie (from the HD) in the background, the battery is running, but it stops in a few minutes after I stop the movie....

McGyver? Any ideas?

That's really weird. I've never really encountered a problem like that. Did you run that battery monitor program I linked earlier? It will you some detailed information on the battery.

The only thing I can think of is to look in the motherboard bios setup, and see if there's any settings there.

I will run that program, but I am more than sure it is the power management set up. As long as the movie is running, there is constant memory and whatever usage. But when I just browse the net there are seconds/minutes when nothing really is used, and the notebook takes it as a signal to shut down...

Now for a temporary solution, I should just find another program that can be running constantly but uses less resources than the movie player...

What I earlier said about the movieplayer just being on the taskbar, wasn't true, so I deleted it. The program/movie has to be running to keep the battery working.

Anyhow, how can I look up, the reason for the last shut down?

So you set all of these to "never"?

http://fivepercent.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/power-option1.png

Yeap.

OK, I am running the battery test, but it just shows the battery slowly depleting, nothing special.

Just before the last shut off, for a second I got a little window with a message: Failed to crate Tkeyform1 or something similar, I had very little time to read it. Google can't find anything with that... This was maybe Speedfan related, I was running it in the background...

The only other thing I can think to check is the bios. Just hit "del" when the computer first starts up. (or whatever button it is F1 or f10...depends on the make) and see if there is any power management settings in the hardware setup.