Battery Packs

Managing Low-Battery Conditions

It is important to respond to a low-battery or critical low-battery condition. This section describes default battery settings and ways to protect your work in a low-battery condition.

Identifying a Low-Battery Condition

When the battery pack is the only power source for the notebook and drops to 5 percent of a full charge, the notebook has reached a low-battery condition. When this condition occurs, the battery light blinks and a text warning message is displayed.

The Power Options utility allows you to redefine a low-battery condition, set audio warnings, and change other power defaults. For details, see the “Power” chapter in the Software Guide on the Documentation Library CD.

Identifying a Critical Low-Battery Condition

If you do not resolve a low-battery condition, the notebook enters a critical low-battery condition. By default, the notebook defines a critical low-battery condition as 3 percent of a full battery charge remaining.

The battery light continues to blink and:

■If Hibernation is enabled (the default setting) and the notebook is on or in Standby, the system initiates Hibernation and saves system memory to the hard drive. Unsaved work might be lost.

■If Hibernation is disabled and the notebook is on or in Standby, the notebook remains briefly in Standby, then shuts down. The power/Standby light turns off, and the notebook cannot save system memory to the hard drive.

Hardware Guide

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