Tip: How to Check the Battery Health on a Chromebook

Published by Lamin Kanteh on February 24, 2019February 24, 2019

On the surface, Chromebooks tend to give the impression that they are simple devices powered by a boring operating system. But, equip yourself with the right tools and poke a little under the hood, you will come to realize that there is more to this simplistic operating system than meets the eye.

Take for example, the utility battery testing feature that you can perform using simple commands and the results? Get an in depth rundown of your Chromebook’s battery health.

This can be quite useful if you are someone into used Chromebooks or just curious about current device’s battery health and put a perspective on how much time it has left.

How to Run The Battery Test Utility

Step 1:

Getting started requires that you open the crosh terminal within your browser and you can do this by holding ctrl+alt+t simultaneously on your keyboard.

Step 2:

This should the crosh interface where you can type the command battery_test and then Enter.

Since you didn’t specify how long you want the test to run in the first command, the process will default to 300 seconds which means you will have to wait for about five minutes while the process runs the battery discharge test.

Adjust the time you want the test to run by adding it to the last part of the command. For example, if you want the test to run for 60 seconds, your command should be something like this: battery_test 60

Note: If your battery health shows 100%, it means it the cells are a maximum and it can accept the full specified charge it was designed for.

But as you continue to use your device, you will notice the percentage starting to depreciate indicating wear and tear overtime.

In Depth Battery Info

The second battery-related usage of the crosh terminal is an overview of important information regarding your Chromebook’s battery which includes circle counts.

In layman’s terms, The Battery Cycle Count is the number of times the battery has been discharged and recharged and it is calculated based on any combination of either of the two that adds up to 100%

Depending on how often you use your Chromebook, this information can be quite useful as it gives you an accurate estimate as to how long of a lifetime your battery has and when is the right time to purchase a new battery.

Presuming you are sill in the crosh terminal, type this command battery_firmware info