As another school year comes to a close, many schools are packing up their Chromebooks for a 3rd, 4th or even 5th year. These older Chromebooks are likely (or will soon start) experiencing battery issues. This is a great time to check their battery health in preparation for next school year. Here’s how (there’s also a GIF at the bottom of the post):
- Close all open tabs.
- Open Crosh (Chrome OS Developer Shell) using Ctrl+Alt+T
- Type “battery_test 30” and press enter.
- The first number that reads out is your battery’s health (from 0-100%). The higher it is, the better. As a general rule of thumb, if it’s over 50% on an older Chromebook, you’re in pretty good shape.
- After 30 seconds (the number you typed in above) you’ll see how fast your Chromebook is discharging. You could’ve typed in a smaller number to make it go faster, but the test may not have been as reliable. If it’s discharging at a rate of more than 0.10% in 30 seconds, you may have issues in the future.
Of course, a weak or rapidly discharging battery is not a big deal if the device can be plugged in throughout the day. But if you’re in a 1-to-1 school where students carry Chromebooks from class to class, a battery that is under 50% health and discharging faster than 0.10% in 30 seconds won’t make it through the day.
