Getting Started 3

Checking Battery Power

The battery system implements the Smart Battery standard under the Windows environment, which allows the battery to accurately report the amount of charge left in the battery. A fully- charged battery pack provides the Notebook PC a few hours of working power. But the actual figure varies depending on how you use the power saving features, your general work habits, the CPU, system memory size, and the size of the display panel.

NOTE: Screen captures shown here are examples only and may not reflect what you see in your system.

Left-click the battery icon

Right-click the battery icon

Cursor over the battery icon without power adapter.

Cursor over the battery icon with power adapter.

NOTE: You will be warned when battery power is low. If you continue to ignore the low battery warnings, the Notebook PC eventually enters suspend mode (Windows default uses STR).

WARNING! Suspend-to-RAM (STR) does not last long when the battery power is depleted. Suspend-to-Disk (STD) is not the same as power OFF. STD requires a small amount of power and will fail if no power is available due to complete battery depletion or no power supply (e.g. removing both the power adapter and battery pack).

Charging the Battery Pack

Before you use your Notebook PC on the road, you will have to charge the battery pack. The battery pack begins to charge as soon as the Notebook PC is connected to external power using the power adapter. Fully charge the battery pack before using it for the first time. A new battery pack must completely charge before the Notebook PC is disconnected from external power. It takes a few hours to fully charge the battery when the Notebook PC is turned OFF and may take twice the time when the Notebook PC is turned ON. The battery status indicator on the Notebook PC turns OFF when the battery pack is charged.

NOTE: The battery stops charging if the temperature is too high or the battery voltage is too high.

WARNING! Do not leave the battery pack discharged. The battery pack will discharge over time. If not using a battery pack, it must continued to be charged every three months to extend recovery capacity or else it may fail to charge in the future.

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ASRock F14 manual Checking Battery Power, Charging the Battery Pack