What's a healthy laptop battery wear level?

Under 20% wear (so over 80% original capacity) at 2 years is normal. Over 35% wear after 2 years is high — manufacturers offer replacement around this point. After 500-1000 full charge cycles, most lithium-ion batteries hit 70-80% original capacity regardless of care.

Why does Windows say 'plugged in not charging'?

Many laptops deliberately stop charging at 80-95% to extend battery life. It's a feature in Lenovo Vantage, Dell Power Manager, ASUS Battery Health Charging. Worth knowing before assuming the battery is dead.

Should I always keep my laptop plugged in?

Modern laptops handle this fine — when full, they bypass the battery and run from the wall. Some manufacturers (Apple, Lenovo) even ship a 'battery preservation' mode that caps at 80%. The bigger danger is using a laptop only on battery never plugged in, which accelerates wear via deep cycles.

Wizard / W08

Laptop battery health.

Unplug the charger, then press start. We measure your battery's response to a brief CPU load and project runtime.

Notes

Browsers don't expose design capacity or cycle count — those need vendor tools (Lenovo Vantage, Dell Power Manager, macOS coconutBattery). This wizard measures observable discharge under controlled load.

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Manual follow-ups browser cannot measure

Vendor tool capacity check

macOS: Apple menu → System Settings → Battery → Battery Health. Windows: 'powercfg /batteryreport' in PowerShell — generates an HTML report with design vs current capacity and cycle count. Linux: 'upower -i $(upower -e | grep BAT)'.
Cycle count check

macOS Apple menu → About → System Report → Power. Windows: same battery report. > 800 cycles = expect noticeable wear; > 1500 = replacement time.
Swelling visual check

With the laptop powered off and the bottom case off (if removable), check the battery for visual swelling. Swollen batteries are a fire hazard — replace immediately.

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