laptop battery on 8.0

[Luigi Rizzo]

On Sat, Dec 12, 2009 at 04:11:22PM +0100, Zoran Kolic wrote:
> Howdy!
> Old laptop hp nx9020 with i386 8.0.
> Original battery was 371785-001, 11.1 V and 4400 mAH.
> New one says it is f4809 at 14.8 V. I also lost precise
> measurement of remain battery time:
> 
> hw.acpi.battery.life: 97
> hw.acpi.battery.time: 267
> 
> then again:
> 
> hw.acpi.battery.life: 97
> hw.acpi.battery.time: 388
> 
> I'd like to hear any opinion on this subject. Could I
> damage laptop? Also, what I could do to regain "life"
> option?

surely there might be a mistake in how data are parsed,
but remember that the "remaining time" is computed based
on remaining capacity and recent average current.
So, if for any reason (cpu/disk/network load decreases, screensaver,
etc.) the current decreases, the reported time goes up.
It happens all the time with 'acpiconf -i batt' even on 7.x.

cheers
luigi