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My laptop battery is getting a old but it still gives me approx one hour [ 1½ hours on Windows]. The problem is that when I disconnect the power cord [or log on without the power cord ], the estimated time to empty shows only 2 minutes and the laptop goes into suspend. After a while the estimates gets more accurate. Is there any fix available ?

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    I have heard that the software that the battery itself uses to estimate remaining charge can get inaccurate over time. A suggested way to fix this is to completely drain your battery, fully recharge it, completely drain it and fully recharge it again to help it calibrate its estimating software. This should work for any battery that uses lithium-ion technology (e.g., you can apply this advice to smartphones, etc., as well). Do you still have the problem after trying this? Oct 29, 2011 at 2:57
  • I discharged and recharged the battery, but not twice. Will try that.
    – Mr Hyde
    Oct 29, 2011 at 16:03
  • @MrHyde - after following Warrioring64 suggesstion did it resolve your problem? Mar 6, 2012 at 10:49
  • @MarkRooney : No, the problem persists; I have come to believe that the problem is caused by inaccurate estimation when the battery level is between 90 and 100 % (have attachesd a screenshot above). I have got around the problem by setting the battery critical option to Nothing, though that may cause me to lose work someday :-/
    – Mr Hyde
    Mar 7, 2012 at 12:44

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The default battery indicator in Ubuntu can be inaccurate on some laptops due to the systems bios not showing the remaining time correctly.

One solution for this is to get a better battery indicator called battery-status that is available by ppa for installation.

Type the following commands in a terminal;

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:iaz/battery-status && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install battery-status

After installation go to Cog -> Startup Applications;

Startup Applications

And add following command to the list

/usr/lib/battery-status/battery-status --indicator

Then restart your system, there is a good guide with screenshots on OMG!Ubuntu!

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  • Seems to be no longer be maintained... nothing there for 16.04
    – Zanna
    Jul 3, 2016 at 6:47

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