Upgrading their LG notebook to Windows 7 has left some customers scrambling for new batteries after the new operating system suggested they needed to replace their old one, and scratching their heads when the "Consider replacing your battery" persisted.
Microsoft confirmed that users were seeing a warning message immediately after they made the jump to Windows 7 on certain LG notebooks, instructing them to replace their laptop’s battery.
However, customers that went ahead and swapped existing batteries or new ones, continued to see the message from the Windows Battery Meter.
The software giant explained that Windows 7 is not at fault for the problem. According to the Redmond company, the erroneous "Consider replacing your battery" messages are generated by a code defect in the system firmware (BIOS) of some LG notebooks, including the R500 family of laptops.
“The Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) firmware does not correctly initialize and report the Design Capacity field of the static battery information structure that is retrieved by using the _BIF method,” Microsoft explained.
“Therefore, the Design Capacity that is reported to Windows may be much larger than the Last Full Charge capacity that is also reported in the static battery information structure.
“The Windows Battery Meter divides the Last Full Charge capacity by the Design Capacity to determine battery health.
“The Windows Battery Meter displays the "Consider replacing your battery" message when the Last Full Charge Capacity is less than 40% of the Design Capacity. When this issue occurs, the Design Capacity is reported as much larger than Last Full Charge capacity.”
As a direct result, "Consider replacing your battery" message is displayed continuously, even in scenarios in which customers indeed act as instructed and replace their hardware.
Users that went out and purchased a new battery might have spent money when they didn’t necessarily need to, since the faulty messages can be resolved with a BIOS update.
Obviously, since Microsoft’s own software is not at fault, the company doesn’t provide a fix for this. Instead, it’s telling customers affected by this issue to head over to LG, download an updated version of BIOS for their machine and install it.
The software giant is advising users to visit the following LG Web sites:
[BIOS] LG Notebook(R500) System BIOS Ver F.20
[BIOS] LG Notebook(P300) System BIOS Ver F.19
[BIOS] LG Notebook(R405) System BIOS Ver F.20
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