Prolonging Alienware Laptop Battery Life

Tried the search, but "remove battery when on AC" and the likes was to generic to give som results.

What do you guys say?

Do we remove the battery when running on AC, or is that myth put to rest?

 

Its personal preference. Since the Inspiron E1705 (XPS M1730 and now AW M17x), I have never removed a battery except when the charge was depleted and I needed to switch to my backup batt. While on AC, the battery stays in my system.

You can leave it in 24x7 or remove it. The choice is yours. LI-ION batts have a "#of charge cycles". Once you reach/surpass that total# of charge cycles is when you start to have issues. Partial recharges are better over a full depleted charge cycle (IMO).

Again, its your choice. There are countless articles concerning LI-ION laptop battery 'care' on the net. Best to do some research before deciding.

 

Yes, and also doesn't Fn+F2 make it so the system will ignore the battery?

 

Hi All,

So i've had my M11xr2 since June, and i use batterybar pro to monitor my power stats.

Around two weeks ago my battery wear was at 0, capacity 64,000mwh, then it went up to 0.3% battery wear, 0.7% a few days later, and within the past few hours it has just jumped up from 0.7% to 2.1%.

Is battery bar a reliable program to monitor battery wear? I run my battery right down every couple of weeks, so it should be quite healthy. Is there any way to calibrate the battery to ensure that this is infact the correct number?

I'm not sure if this is a fault, or just a delay in batterybar updating. Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

 

I would say this is your problem - as I understand it, you should avoid depleting the battery as this eats away at the total# of charge cycles. This is not like the old style notebook batts where you could recondition them - think memory batts.

Battery 'usage' is a debated topic. Some will cite articles from years past as fact. In the end, do the research, view the info out there and then draw your own conclusions.

FWIW, I leave my batts in the lappies 24x7 - on battery or AC power. I have yet to have a battery fail on me or show a reduced charge as a result. Been doing this since the old Dell E1705 and XPS M1710 days. I gave a new battery to my sister for use in her Inspiron. She uses the system quite a bit on battery. Instead of plugging it in while sitting on their couch, she would let it run down. Well, here it is 6 months later and that battery is now toast.

Again, do the research and draw your own conclusions.

 

batboy, thanks for the reply. I thought that manufacturers advised customers to deplete their batteries on a regular basis, usually monthly? From what you have said, its best not to do that? I thought that would affect the battery length/ performance if it wasnt drained on a regular basis?

 

Batteries have a shelf life even if you do not use them. Im in the camp of "do not drain down". Use it normally... if your situation is such that you need to use all the power you have then go for it but otherwise just leave plugged in.

My thinking is this is why you see the batt charge disable options.

 

the only reason you should deep discharge your battery is for calabration. which you only need to do once.

im not going to post links for proof or anything but ive talked to a few chemical engys and the newer chemistry in the newer batts dont like deep discharges and this actually reduces the number of cycles or lenght of cycles you will get out of it. unlike the older batts that needed full charges and discharges for better "battery memory"

 

Correct - I would not suggest doing this.

If you happen to locate any material on the dell site which states the battery should be depleted monthly, please post or PM me the link. I would be very interested to see this type of statement/documentation - to understand 'why' its 'advised'.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We have another thread on this - see this thread for additional discussion.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m11x/513598-should-i-drain-battery.html

 

Hi All,

Thanks for all the advice that you have offered. After spending an hour doing research on google last night, it seems that modern laptop batteries should never be fully discharged as it kills the cells in the battery, resulting in reduced capacity and increased levels of battery wear.

A full discharge should only ever be done on old batteries, 3/4 years +, the ones with a memory chip in them which i guess would help to calibrate the battery if it wasnt performing properly.

My battery wear is 2.1% according to battery bar, with the total capacity originally 64,530mwh. I only seem to get around 4 hours out of my battery though.

Hopefully my findings and the advice of others will help people to avoid discharging there battery as much as i have!

Also, apparently leaving your battery on the AC adapter is fine

 

One footnote on the batterybar app, many of these apps grab data using different methods. One may report xx value while another app may report a different value completely.

Apps which report battery 'wear' and current charge level:

Speccy - System Information - Free Download

EVEREST Ultimate Edition - PC Diagnostics | Lavalys.com

SiSoftware Zone

There are also individual battery check only apps out there. One thing I would watch for are older programs released more than a year ago. The apps from back in 2005 - well, I'd question the results.

 

Hey everyone.

I've frequently seen posts here about proper battery care, the do's and do nots for our little lappy batteries... Well, I just ran across this article at Ars Technica...
Ask Ars: What is the best way to use a Li-ion battery?

Read and enjoy a little more life!

 

It's a good read, there are some misconceptions I had about Li-on batteries that this cleared up for me.

P.s. funny picture from human centipede haha

 

Yeah, I love the HC! Still waiting for the second installment

 

I was just browsing the internets and I came across this forum where people were claiming when you first get a laptop, you should turn it on and not plug in the AC adapter. You should just keep using it until the battery hits 0% and shuts the computer off.

After this, you should charge the computer completely to 100% without turning it on in between.

Supposedly, you get the most out of your battery if you do this. I've never heard of this. Do you think it actually works?

 

I have heard this but at the end of the day the battery which is the same as the m11x is only rated for 300 charge discharge cycles. I personally think I did it with my m11x when I got it and the battery is still pretty good still push 5 hours overclocked bluetooth and wifi on with screen brightness one or two down from max (obviously igp)

 

Just ignore these rules and prepare to buy a new battery in 2-3 years, you own the piece of kit, not enslaved by it

 

Or you could just charge it once, remove it and then run with no battery and about one a month pop it in to top it off. Then install it when you really need it.

After I read this to myself out loud.. never-mind. Just save a few bones to buy a new battery in a couple of years.

StevenX

 

Scratch that... Bios has option to CHARGE BEHAVIOR - Enable Battery Charging or Disable.

So.. Charge it once, then disable in bios and don't enable it again until you need to charge it.

There you go. If your docked or plugged in most of the time then your battery may last several years.

Take Care,

StevenX

 

It basically just makes sure the battery is fully saturated, you will get more time out of it, its something you should do once every one or two months.

 

your battery is going to degrade in 2-3 years whether you charge it or not. Taking it out, not charging it, etc. really doesn't make any measurable difference.

 

It doesn't matter. The people that suggest a rundown an full charge are taking what you used to have to go and do with phones a few years back and applying it to laptops, thinking they're the same battery. They're not.

It's actually slightly worse to run down a laptop battery completely, but even that doesn't make a lot of difference. You can be constantly charging your battery, or you can leave it in a freezer and never touch it - it'll wear down pretty much the same.

 

Do we know if the M14x has a removable battery ?

so you can do a quick swap

 

I think its like the M11x... you can't swap the battery unless you unscrew the bottom

 

Yeah, it's under the bottom panel of the chassis. It's not removable, but at least it's replaceable.

 

this.

but I guess the more you use the battery (unplugged laptop) the sooner it dies

 

useful article at Ars about battery life.

Ask Ars: What is the best way to use a Li-ion battery?

 

With my m11x, I used the option in my bios that said don't charge while plugged in. This worked, although I had to re-enter it every time I restarted my laptop

 

Lithium ion batteries are usually rated to last for a certain number of charge cycles they last. On my Toshiba Satellite I used to take the battery out and use the computer plugged in with no battery (to cut down on charge cycles) when I knew I wouldn't have to take it anywhere for an extended period.
It had pretty miserable battery life starting at day 1, so I don't know if taking the battery out helped it last longer or not.

 

QFT. Don't do this. Also, don't believe everything you read on the interwebs.

 

Hi guys,

Would the procedure StevenX propose really work?

I'm intending to use the m14x as a desktop replacer at home and still bring it out to study and work and it is too much of a hassle to keep removing the battery for long hours usage.

Please do advise!

Thank you

 

Having worked with lithium ion degradation tables as an EE, I can say that if you're going to be plugged in the vast majority of the time, but you know in advance about the few times you'll be using substantial battery power (e.g. it mostly sits on your desk except the monthly flight to hawaii) the best thing to do would be to disable charging in the bios when the battery is about 30% charged (not drained or full).

Then, the dayu before you go to hawaii, re-enable charging, and get it charged up. Use it on your flight. if you drained it below 30% charge it back to 30% while it sits on your desk, then disable charging. if you're above 60%, use it on battery till you're below 60%, then disable charging and plug it in on your desk. Rinse. Repeat

The above is only true if your battery will be spending most of the time not being used. (say less than once a week). If you're using it more frequently than that, just leave charging enabled.

Since there is a bios option to disable charging, there is no need to remove the battery at all. besides, it is a great ups if you have slightly dodgy power.

hope that helps

Also, I don't know one way or the other, but there are design (marketing) decisions that could have been made by dell/alienware that make the above less true. Specifically, if they design a "fully charged" battey to actually be ~90% charged, it gives ~10% less run time in a battery test while extending battery storage and cycle life substantially. This change makes it less important to not be stored fully charged (the main thing being accomplished in my above advice).
The trade-offs from dell are reduced run time while new (review benchmarking, basically) for happier long-term service... It's basically a marketing decision for an engineering trade-off.

 

Hello,

My laptop is plugged almost all the time. To prolong alienware m18x battery life(or any laptop for that matter) while gaming is it best to take it out? And use AC only?

I was searching on internet but there are lots of statements that are self-contradictory to the others... One thing for sure is that heat kills li-ion batteries much faster.

Also, any of you who had alienware for a long time and constantly had battery and ac plugged in. Is your battery life still quite long after a couple years or dies within 20-30min?

Sorry to post in a new thread if it was answered before, i didn't find it.

 

I am pretty sure that the BIOS contains an option to stop the battery from chargining which you should do.

 

Quoting our Alienware Brother, L_Porras on this thread: http://forum.notebookreview.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=8647847

 

I discharge mine to around 33-25% now and then, then charge it completely back up. Sometimes I'll let it go around 50% and plug it into the wall, especially during a heavy gaming session. At least every 6 months, I'll discharge it until Windows gives me the critical battery alert, do a complete shutdown, and a total recharge powered off.

I was going to plug my coffee grinder into the laptop and call it Mr. Fusion, but that didn't work.

 

Thanks for using our articles! +1

Also, new systems (M17x r4, M18x r2 and M14x r2) switch the battery charging automatically, so that when it reaches a 100% it stops charging.

 

No problem, Luis...that's what they are there for, right? +rep "backatcha" for your great presence on the forum!

 

Feature Request: The ability to stop charging at a custom percentage, such as 60%.

 

We used to be able to do that with the 17x R2.....I remember using Fn&F2 to cycle between options to enable and disable battery charging whenever we wanted to. I miss that on the M18x.

 

Hey guys, just had one question.

Should you take out the battery from the laptop when using the machine with power cord plugged in or just keep it in there? Does it make a difference if you don't put the battery in at all if you are using power cord?

 

There's no point leaving the battery out imo, having it in there wont degrade it or anything in my experience. If fact, if you leave it out, it's an inconvenience if you accidentally kick the adapter out of your laptop or the power goes out. Having the battery in there might save you some heartache if you forgot to save your work lol.

 

From what I understand, having the battery in while plugged in is apparently bad for it in the long run (like 2-3 years).

 

In my experiance Dell batteries don't last very long anyway.

 

In my opinion, I think it depends on where the battery is located in the laptop. I have a 6 years old Toshiba satellite m60 which, according to some reviews, got about 3 hours of battery time when new (I don't remember if I actually tested it).
Now it gets more or less an hour, still on the original battery and never removed it when not needed (which is 99% of the time, as it is always plugged in). Fact is that the battery in that laptop is far from all of the major heat sources.

If the battery is near a major heat source in a specific laptop model, then I think that it may be worth to remove the battery when not needed, but if it is in a cool location, I'd leave it there.

Andrea.

 

My Dell laptop batteries seem to last as long or longer than the batteries in other laptops I use for work (or previously owned). No worries about that for me. They always stay in and connected to AC power 99% of the time. Still getting 4.5 to 5 hours on my M18x on IGFX after nearly a year.

As you can see by the older posts on the subject of taking the battery out and being connected to AC power all the time, this is a frequently asked question. With modern batteries it is not a problem like it used to be. What you want to avoid doing is making a practice of frequently draining the battery. They don't have a "memory" and frequently fully draining and recharging will shorten the life, not help it.

 

Wait, so what does the Fn+F2 do now on the new systems?

 

Basically... nothing.

It makes an icon appear temporarily on screen but my settings remain unchanged. It does not seem to toggle. It is supposed to turn the battery off.

 

That's dumb.

Sent from my SGH-T999

 

No, not so dumb, at least in my view... just not effective. It doesn't really matter one way or the other to me. I'd have no use for it even if it did work. In fact, I'm kind of glad it does not because the "Stealth Mode" thing that is on the M17x R2 was idiotic. I'd rather have a power saving feature be broken and non-functional than have it trying to work when I don't want to save power.