Battery icon shows 255% even when battery not installed

If draining the battery does not resolve the 255% indication then you might try searching the forum for battery driver. I recall seeing some guidance about resolving some apparent battery problems by uninstalling the battery driver and letting Device manager re-detect then reinstall it. I have not kept any notes on this subject but I know I have seen such posts.

Denis

Thanks Denis. I never really gave it much thought. I'm happy if I get 4 hours of battery life before I have to plug it in or hibernate or shutdown.

This HP Pavilion dv7-6c63nr Entertainment Notebook is a 2011 model that came with Win 7 Pro X64 originally. I got it used real cheap at a thrift store, upped the ram to 8GB, added a 500GB SSD but have not replaced the battery yet. Has a Intel i5-2450M Dual Core 2.5Ghz processor. Also has a 17.3-inch diagonal HD+ BrightView LED-backlit display (1600 x 900) which is huge for a laptop and easy on the eyes.

Upgraded to Win 10 right after I got it back in January.

I like it because it also has room for a 2nd HDD so I added the Second SATA HDD Cable Connector Adapter CABLE when I got the SSD so I could mount the old HDD as a 2nd HDD.

Sorry, got carried away there.

Anyway, thanks again for your thoughts and suggestions. I'm running the HP Diag long test now and it should run about 2 hours. I disconnected the power adapter so it will be draining the battery as it runs so the battery should be below 90% when the battery test is run which it says is required for some of the tests to work.

I'll post the results in the morning after church.

Rich,

That 2011 battery has lasted very well. Perhaps nobody has ever run it on battery power for very long.

I remain convinced that the battery itself is sound. That is based on the very good PowerCfg last charged result, on the very low drain when you had been using the internet for a couple of hours and on the fact that I have quite stupidly only just noticed the significance of your words "even when battery not installed"
- this confirms that the problem is a Windows issue or a drivers issue
- if I had appreciated those words before I would not have even suggested checking those PowerCfg last charge & design capacity figures even though they do provide some helpful confirmation.

I'll make a point of checking for your updates tomorrow [afternoon, for me] because after that I will probably be tied up until Friday [drinking sightseeing in Brussels].

Best of luck,
Denis

Brussels === good Abbey Ale, right? I'm a tad partial to those myself.

Drink responsibly but DRINK!!!!!

PS: My favorite beer is the next one.

Log from HP Diag battery test:

CeementBatteryCheckResult: 11
DevicesSupported: 1
DeviceCount: 1
Primary_ACPowerOn: False
Primary_ACAdapterOk: True
Primary_TestresultString: OK_NO_AC
Primary_DesignCapacity: 8850mAh
Primary_FullChargeCapacity: 6285mAh
Primary_RemainingCapacity: 6285mAh
Primary_MaxError: 0 Primary_CycleCount: 0
Primary_Temperature: 29deg C
Primary_Voltage: 11466mV
Primary_Current: 63862mA
Primary_DesignVoltage: 11100mV
Primary_Status: 1 Primary_CellVoltage1: 3834mV
Primary_CellVoltage2: 3830mV
Primary_CellVoltage3: 3793mV
Primary_CellVoltage4: 0mV
Primary_SerialNumber: 02187 02/13/2012
Primary_ManufacturerName: 13-54
Primary_BatteryCTNumber: 6BSGT42SM2H27T
Primary_Warranty: 1 Primary_CalibrationType: 3
Primary_ChargeControl: NotSupported
Primary_TempCharge: True
Primary_ChargeTest: False
Primary_ChargeCapacity: 71
Primary_TempAlarm: False
Primary_DeepDischarge: False
Primary_FullCharge: True
Primary_FullChargeStatus: False
Primary_BatteryCharge: True
Primary_DesignCycleCount: 300

This was with A/C adapter disconnected. not sure what the % charged was. Sort of meaningless.

Rich,

I cannot see any signs of a battery problem in those HP Diagnostics results.
- By the way, these tests give charge figures in mAh, the PowerCfg results were in mWh. The comparison of Last full charge / Design capacity remains about 70% as you'd expect.
- Whilst my own tests do not reveal battery temperature, your temperature result of 29deg C [84deg F] seems perfectly reasonable {= you could hold it in your hand without swearing}

If you get any reoccurrence of the 255% indication and draining the battery has no effect then I'd still suggest
- searching for battery driver threads in the forum
and/or
- simply waiting for a new [Insider] Build or two to see if they sort things out for you.

If the problem becomes insurmountable, you could use some entries in Event viewer to manually assess instantaneous battery charge levels [the entries are written only at the moment of a power source change - ac to dc or dc to ac].

Code:

System log, Source Kernel power, EventID 105

- look in the Details tab for the data
- You might look now while your memory is fresh at some entries made when you know that you were still getting the false 255% indication in the System tray
- I have never found enough need for such assessments to develop automatic extraction of this data. Extracting then working with data that is only in Event viewer's Details tab is really awkward - I tried to do so a few years ago using the built-in utility wevtutil for an update checker & for a network connection checker but I never really got either of them working reliably.

By the way, I'll be living off Maes [a local Brussels Pils].

Denis

I see 9 Task ID 105s on 3/22, 23 and 24. All look normal and reasonable. No weird or unreasonable numbers recorded.

Good. Whilst I could think of no logical reason why these results should suffer from the 255% issue, I could not test that condition.

Fingers crossed but, if the 255% issue does persist, then at least you will know somewhere you can look for a real set of readings [current & last full charge].

Denis