Windows 10 (like its predecessor, Windows 8.1) comes with a hidden battery report feature that you can only access from the command line. The report provides detailed readouts on the usage, status, and health of your laptop’s battery. It can be an invaluable tool in making sure your system’s running smoothly and spotting power problems before they get serious.



Generating the report itself is easy: launch a command prompt window with administrative privileges by right-clicking on the Start button and choosing Command Prompt (Admin). Type out:powercfg /batteryreport /output “C:\battery_report.html”

Then hit Enter, and your finished report can be found in the root directory of the C: drive (or wherever you specified).

Understanding the report is a little trickier, but it’s not impossible. You get information on the full specifications of the installed battery, as well as recent usage and battery capacity charts (which should give you some indication of its current health). Battery life estimates is an interesting section to check to see if you’re getting the time between charges specified by the manufacturer.

Many users won’t technically need to run these reports, but if you like to know everything that’s happening on your machine, then it’s a great way to get more information about your battery. If there’s a large discrepancy between the full charge capacity and the capacity figures on report, for example, it might be time to buy a replacement battery.

Sony is recalling its VAIO laptop battery packs due to concerns they could become a fire hazard.

The battery packs risk overheating due to a manufacturing flaw, according to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

The recall includes battery packs sold with Sony’s VAIO E Series notebooks with product codes SVE15137CGP, SVE15137CGS and SVE15138CGW.

The notebooks were sold nationally by authorised VAIO resellers, including Harvey Norman and JB Hi-Fi, from 1 December 2012 to 1 September 2013.

Sony has issued a statement apologising for the inconvinience and asking customers to call their customer service team to discuss the next step.

The issue is a manufacturing one which has the potential to burn parts of the battery packs. We are implementing a free replacement program for the affected battery packs, Sony said in a statement.

If you are using one of the VAIO personal computer models listed below, please confirm if your battery pack is one of those affected via the link below. If it is identified as an affected unit, please immediately remove the battery pack from your PC. With the battery pack removed, you may continue to use your PC safely with an AC adapter.

http://www.new-laptopbatteries.com/dell-xps-l501x.html DELL XPS L501x Battery , http://www.new-laptopbatteries.com/dell-vostro-1510.html Dell vostro 1510 Battery , http://www.new-laptopbatteries.com/toshiba-satellite-a300.html Toshiba Satellite A300 Battery

Sony also pointed out that the affected battery packs were provided by Panasonic.

This is the fourth laptop battery recall the ACCC has flagged this year. Microsoft commenced a mass recall of power cords in January, which affected all Surface Pro, Surface Pro 2 and Surface Pro 3 devices sold before 15 July 2015.

Toshiba and Panasonic were also forced to recall laptop batteries last month.