Acer Predator Helios 500: Question about battery calibration

[Core512]

Hey folks,

 

I have a question to you about battery calibration, but I would like to tell you my back story - I would appreciate any insight.

 

I have been using the aforementioned laptop for almost a year now (the i7 version, codename PH517-51).

The battery inside is a 74 mWh Panasonic AP17C5P. 

After undervolting the machine (-150 mV on both the core and the cache), it performed (and is still performing) fantastically, but I observed that the wear level of the battery inside started to increase significantly.
This was not a steady increase mind you, but it went down as follows:

 

I bought the laptop in November 2018. From then until May 04 2019, the wear level increased by about 4%.

Then, by 5th May, it jumped to around 14%.

 

The next big jump was in August - by this time, the wear level increased by another 3%, but at the end of the month, all of a sudden I saw that the wear level jumped to 28%.

I ran a battery report in windows about this as well, and checked the data in HWINFO64.

The info was consistent, showing only 53,453 mWh full charge capacity instead of the designed capacity of 74,074 mWh.

 

As the laptop uses hybrid power, taking the battery out was not an option.

I tried calibrating the battery by charging it to full, then draining it to about 5% and letting the machine shut down.

I left it turned off for around 5 hours, then turned it on, let it charge.

It did this two times: after the first time, the wear level improved a bit, but after the second time, it became worse.

 

You may see the Windows battery report below.

The laptop is under warranty, so I took it to the retailer and requested a replacement battery.

This is why you can see the original full charge capacity in the last row.

 

 

Now, it would be time to calibrate my battery as it is brand new.

 

The big question is, how should I do it?

 

To be honest, I have read a lot of articles about battery calibration, but these are mostly quite inconsistent.

In the shop, they told me to leave the laptop on power for 12 hours, then disconnect it from AC, and leave it on battery for 12 hours (let it shut down, etc.), then repeat this once more.

Now this is something I haven't heard or read before.

 

Also, I have read that there is a 330W power adapter available for this model.

As this laptop draws power from the battery even when on power if it's needed, this sounds like a good option.

However, as opposed to some users, I have never experienced my laptop discharging / charging when I was using it on AC, playing games.

 

Do you guys think it would be useful / beneficial to get one of these adapters?

 

I would be glad to have any input on the above stuff, please do not spare me any details that you might consider useful.

In case I forgot to mention something, just holler.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

Cheers! 

 

Adam