Dead Battery at 97%?

[Naegling23]

I have a pangolin performance. Using the battery tool, I am following the discharge on the battery pack. The battery gets to somewhere around 97% or so (After a few minutes), and the computer just suddenly turns off, and will not turn on again until I plug it back in. It doesnt matter if I am using it, or not, and this is pretty consistent behavior. What is going on, and is there anything I can do to fix it? According to the battery tool, there doesnt seem to be anything wrong with the battery itself.

[Naegling23]

Some extra information. I left it to fully charge. Once fully charged, I removed the AC adapter and left it on battery power. I followed the discharge rate using the gnome power manager. After about 3 minutes or so, the laptop just shut off. No warning, no shutdown proceedure, no low battery warning, the hard drive clicked off and the screen went black. Turning on the power does nothing until I plug the AC adapter back in. At this point, it looks and acts like a dead battery. However, following the gnome power manager, the last reported figure was around 97% capacity for the battery. So whats going on here, is gnome power manager failing to accurately report the true battery capacity? Do I have some sort of battery bug where it is not fully charging? Do I need to replace the battery with a new one?

[isantop]

I'd take a look at thie Starling Battery Refresh procedure page (here).

Also, I'd like to know how old your battery is. This can affect performance of the battery.

[Naegling23]

I got the laptop in dec. 2008, so its about a year and a half old.

I've been trying the starling refresh technique, which hasnt worked. Im going to give the freezer a trick a try and if that doesnt work, I guess I'll be ordering a new one.

[isantop]

A year and a half is a good run. Most laptop batteries last about a year under typical usage by the average user. You have taken good care of your battery!

You may as well try that trick, since it's not like it costs you anything. If that doesn't work, I do think a new battery will clear the problem right up.