old battery?

[Paul Kaplan]

On Saturday 20 January 2007 4:23 pm, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> On Sat, 2007-01-20 at 15:49 -0500, Paul Kaplan wrote:
> > On Saturday 20 January 2007 3:30 pm, Mario Vukelic wrote:
> > > On Sat, 2007-01-20 at 15:04 -0500, Paul Kaplan wrote:
> > > > How can I tell how much charge my laptop battery has when full?
> > >
> > > On Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) and 6.10 (Edgy) you should be able to unplug
> > > and then see a battery icon in the notification area (I can't remember
> > > how it was in earlier versions). Hover the mouse cursor over it and it
> > > should show you the remaining time. If you don't see the battery icon
> > > then go to menu System/Preferences/Power Management and configure when
> > > the icon is shown.
> >
> > I was looking for something more technical.  I'm trying to figure out
> > whether the battery is loosing it's ability to hold a charge or whether
> > it's just discharging very rapidly.
>
> I see :) Poke around in /proc/acpi/battery/*, using cat on the cmd line.
> I don't know what exactly to do with the info there, but it might give
> you hints.  E.g., on my laptop:
>
> cat /proc/acpi/battery/C1B1/info
> present:                 yes
> design capacity:         4659 mAh
> last full capacity:      4659 mAh
> battery technology:      rechargeable
> design voltage:          10800 mV
> design capacity warning: 233 mAh
> design capacity low:     47 mAh
> capacity granularity 1:  100 mAh
> capacity granularity 2:  100 mAh
> model number:            Primary
> serial number:           00719 2006/09/04
> battery type:            LIon
> OEM info:                Hewlett-Packard
>
> cat /proc/acpi/battery/C1B1/state
> present:                 yes
> capacity state:          ok
> charging state:          charged
> present rate:            0 mA
> remaining capacity:      4496 mAh
> present voltage:         12257 mV

As I suspected...
design capacity:       47520 mWh
last full capacity:      14910 mWh

Will cycling the battery from full to discharge 2-3 times restore the ability 
to charge to design capacity?  Is there anything else I might try or am i 
destined for a replacement?
P