Laptops battery

[sapan soni]

How can i increase my laptop's battery? I mean to say should i unplug the charger after it shows 'full battery' or i should continues using it with plugged charger?

[ecoli]

I've heard that you should drain a battery fully before re-charging. Also, don't run the computer while re-charging, and then recharge to full battery. If you're running low on battery and don't have a spare, take the battery out and just run off of AC (with no battery).

 

Anyone want to confirm that this is the way to do it?

[StringJunky]

I've heard that you should drain a battery fully before re-charging. Also, don't run the computer while re-charging, and then recharge to full battery. If you're running low on battery and don't have a spare, take the battery out and just run off of AC (with no battery).

 

Anyone want to confirm that this is the way to do it?

 

AFAIK you're going with the routine for the old NI-CAD's...it's different for Li-Ion's. Long story short, to maximise the life charge to 40-50% take out the battery and run laptop off the mains when you have it. Fully charge it when you need it. If you leave the battery in fully-charged all the time, the high temperature within the laptop will shorten its life which is the bane of Li-Ion's. Practically, the second-best scenario is to always run on the mains if you have to leave the battery in and keep the number of charge/discharge cycles to the absolute minimum ie don't pull out the mains lead everytime the battery is charged. Putting rubber feet or some such device to raise the laptop higher of the supporting surface to allow better cooling will help battery life as well in this scenario. If you want to splash out some dosh, a cooling pad is probably a good idea if you must leave the battery in.

 

When you are using it on battery, fully charge but only run it down to about 20% capacity before recharging...don't fully discharge it in use as it puts a strain on them.

 

Heat and repeated charge/ full discharge cycles are the killers...leaving the battery out is the easiest solution when not needed.

[TonyMcC]

I would not like to run my laptop without a battery and connected to the mains because a sudden mains failure would not let the computer shut down properly. This could cause all sorts of problems with corrupt data (IMO).

[StringJunky]

I would not like to run my laptop without a battery and connected to the mains because a sudden mains failure would not let the computer shut down properly. This could cause all sorts of problems with corrupt data (IMO).

 

 

Isn't that the same problem for a desktop? You are right, let it happen too many times and it will corrupt the OS. The best way upon further reading to get maximum life is to run two batteries, swapping them when one is about 80% discharged.

[sapan soni]

I would like to ask if i continues to charge after 'full battery' notification, will it decrease the life of battery?

 

I would like to ask if i continues to charge after 'full battery' notification, will it decrease the life of battery?

[Phi for All]

I've heard that you should drain a battery fully before re-charging.

I've heard this as well, and try to do this at all times.

 

Also, don't run the computer while re-charging, and then recharge to full battery. If you're running low on battery and don't have a spare, take the battery out and just run off of AC (with no battery).

This one I haven't heard, and seems impractical.

 

I would like to ask if i continues to charge after 'full battery' notification, will it decrease the life of battery?

My laptop stops charging when it gets to full, and won't start recharging until it drops to about 95%. If I mouse over the battery icon when it's full, it says "plugged in, not charging". I think it's safe to assume that battery life would not decrease if there is no charging activity going on, even though the laptop and battery are both plugged in.

 

What StringJunky says about the heat and recharging from zero makes a lot of sense. Practically, though, when I run on battery, I run it down until I'm prompted that I need to find an AC source soon. That's probably just what the manufacturers want so they can sell you a new battery. I'm going to start trying not to let the battery level get below 20% before recharging.

[StringJunky]

Running the laptop on mains with the battery in does not overcharge the battery...it switches off charge when full up.

 

Phi

 

To quote someone...Charging Li-ion is like the best form of diet...little and often. It prefers frequent shallow charges to deep ones from a flat battery.

 

Here's a 'real-world' bit from a photographer who hammers his camera batteries:

 

It also means that I never try to suck either one dry. Li-ion batteries prefer frequent and shallow discharges. If you do that you'll get far more total energy out of them.

 

I don't know the exact numbers, but you'll get about four times as many charge cycles out of them if you only use 50% of the charge each time, and twenty times as many cycles if you only use 25% of the charge each time.

 

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/battery-life.htm

[Phi for All]

Phi

 

To quote someone...Charging Li-ion is like the best form of diet...little and often. It prefers frequent shallow charges to deep ones from a flat battery.

Cool! Good to know. Thanks, StringJunky.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like having a second (and possibly third) battery to swap out is just as important with Li-ion. Curse you, consumer economy!

[StringJunky]

Cool! Good to know. Thanks, StringJunky.

 

Unfortunately, it looks like having a second (and possibly third) battery to swap out is just as important with Li-ion. Curse you, consumer economy!

 

If you have W7 you can tweak the battery notification settings to warn you to plug in at a higher than default level ( which is 10% on my Compaq) that helps you to maintain a life-extending shallow-charging routine. Here's a How To Geek article on it:

 

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/39635/how-to-tweak-the-low-battery-action-in-windows-7/

 

It depends on how much time you need to be on battery at one time whether you need two or not. The way I look at it is if this routine gives me a solid usable consistent battery life over 5 or 6 years even if I can't use a fifth of it that's good enough for me because the laptop will be old at the current rate of technology. I wish I'd known this a few months ago when my laptop was new...it's already down from over 3 hours to between 2 and 2 1/2 hours now. I've been emptying the battery before recharging.

Edited September 10, 2011 by StringJunky