I can't help but feeling puzzled by something that happened 2 weeks ago.

My laptop is a 8 months old Asus G60Jx. Core I5 520, Geforce 360. Not exactly a low energy config. I had to use it quite a lot lately, as I'm blocked at home waiting for spinal surgery next week.

The original battery ( 11.1v, 4400 mah ) never impressed me. Max autonomy on purchase was less than 1h30 and very soon dropped to around 1h, with the battery becoming hot when charging. One silly thing was that the charge indator remained lit even when battey at 100% . two weeks ago the battery stopped working. abruptly. not charging anymore, computer only working on AC power. The technical support politely turned away my request for help ( they would contact me again for arranging a pickup of the whole laptop, but no 2nd contact ).

Not very satisfied, I got myself a compatible battery (11.1v, 7200 mah) and everything is fine now. Autonomy is now in the 3h - 3h30, battery being much cooler in charge . And the charge indicator disappears when charge is complete

So I'm puzzled. should i fear that there is something wrong with the laptop ? shoud I consider that it was a defective battery ? Or was a 6 cell battery just not adapted to such a power hungry config ( yet that's the one that was included) and hence condemned to a shorter life ?

Any ideas ?

What were you using the machine for? 1.5 hours is pretty low but that battery is a bit wussy and my 17" wasn't much better and was a lot less powerful

I will state upfront that I am not expert. However, from my limited knowledge. I would say that sounds like a defective battery - though how long it lasted powering your machine itself is not necessarily an indicator.

It may have been damaged by overheating, which can happen to poor quality lithium-ion batteries - they can even explode (rare, you really have overheat them)!). The charge indicator never turning off is another potential sign of a poor battery. Taken together, it's a better than likely chance that the battery itself was bad. If you're really curious take it into a tech shop and they can test the battery out for you.

Best of luck on your surgery. Spine surgery sounds ... bad. I really hope everything goes well and you recover equally well.

The same thing happened to me before my old laptop died... not to alarm you, as it may have been a coincidence, but I'm just putting it out there.

How well do you take care of your laptop? Do you clean it regularly? Do you use it on your bed (a BIG no no)?

I don't have a sound knowledge of laptop batteries but I'm just butting in to say good luck with the surgery.

a bit of everything . Although for the games, I most of the time plug the PC to the power socket. 1.5h was expectable because of the geforce 360 M, but the fact that after 2 months there was no way to get more than 1h even with a limited use like internet browsing was not... Thanks a lot. glups... I take good care of it I think, including regular cleaning. I don't use it in my bed ( any reason for that being a no ?) Thanks ;-)

No problem.

The air from your fan can't escape properly

Overheating ... a lot of laptops often can't dissipate the heat well enough on those types of surfaces and the computer can badly overheat which damages pretty much almost everything in the computer.

Serpantano is also right that you should allow your computer to fully discharge and recharge its battery from time to time (Apple says for their batteries about once a month).

My oldest laptop did it all the time, terrible battery life and overheated. I pulled the battery. Turns out that the batteries for this model (I already had to replace mine once) are defective, prone to overheating and spontaneous combustion. Now it's a 'desktop'.

ok, I thought it could be the reason. For me, things are simpler : the kids (whoever has seen two girls fighting over an object both want surely will understand ) are not allowed to have a computer or game console in their rooms, so I stick to the same discipline for myself.

when i mention the factory battery becoming hot, it's just the battery ( on this model , battery is at the back , not in the bottom of the computer ). and that happened even while the rest of the backplate was cold and the side vent blew fresh air, or even when the computer was shut and just left in charge.

For the battery discharge, yeap, I do it about every week or so.

To be fair if you want something truly portable then you're better off with a netbook as opposed to a laptop, the only gripe is their lack of gaming prowess for the most part.

I recently purchased a HP 311C netbook for myself as I wanted something portable with reasonable battery life & gaming ability and so far haven't been disappointed; apart from the stupid trend netbooks seem to have with glossy casing which renders outdoor use nigh on pointless. (It plays Rome Total war well, which was the high end of my expectations. Also Brothers in Arms: Hill 30 maxed out)

I've got an Asus T101MT for portable use, I just converted my old laptop into my 'desktop' for gaming, which it does great on. And to be fair to Asus, the T101MT runs a lot of GoG's stuff pretty well - there are usually only screen resolution conflicts.

I bought 3xDell Vostro A90s (these were the souped up mini 9s). Out of 3 I had one battery failure within 4 months. I think batteries are just cheaply made and have a high failure rate. Apple may pony up for better batteries but it seems no one else gives a fly you know what. I just warranty anything that bombs in the first year (which is why I buy Dell for non-gaming rigs that I'm not going to build myself).