<page xmlns="http://projectmallard.org/1.0/"
      type="topic"
      style="problem"
      id="power-batterybroken">

  <info>
    <link type="guide" xref="power#problems"/>
    <link type="seealso" xref="power-batteryoptimal"/>
    
    <desc>Your battery is probably not broken; it's more likely that it's just old.</desc>
    <revision version="13.10" date="2013-10-22" status="review"/>
    
    <credit type="author">
      <name>GNOME Documentation Project</name>
      <email>gnome-doc-list@gnome.org</email>
    </credit>
    
    <include href="legal.xml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2001/XInclude"/>
  </info>

<title>An error reports my battery has low capacity</title>

<comment>
  <cite date="2011-05-30">shaunm</cite>
  <p>Let's see if we can get that dialog to have a help button pointing here.</p>
</comment>

<p>When you first log in, you might see a message that says:</p>
<quote>
 <p><em>Battery may be broken. Your battery has a very low capacity which means that it may be old or broken.</em></p>
</quote>

<p>This message is displayed when the computer detects that your battery is not capable of storing much charge. The most likely reason for this is that your battery is old; it's probably not broken, so there's no need to worry.</p>

<p>Over time, all laptop batteries lose their ability to store charge. After a while (normally a year or more), the battery will only be able to store a fraction of the charge that it could when it was new. The message above is shown when this happens.</p>

<p>If your computer or battery is relatively new, it should be capable of holding a high percentage of its design charge. If it can't, then your battery may be broken and you might need to seek a replacement.</p>

</page>