Recalibrate your batteries once in a while!

I'm sure this was mentioned somewhere, but still would like to emphasize:

To make your battery last longer all you have to do is once in a while (once per month-two) let it discharge from 100% to 0%. Turn off the Power Saving schemes, otherwise the system might enter Standby/Sleep/etc.
Then just charge the battery all the way up to 100% again and you're done.
I know, most of you guys don't really need the battery life, still, calibrating can also increase the lifespan of the battery.
Ignoring this simple procedure may reduce the max capacity in a few months.

 

Good point. I personally try to do it at least once every two months. This has kept my m1730 battery in shape for a year and a half until I sold it.

 

I always thought discharging the battery fully is meant to wear the battery down?

"Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns."

 

i'm using a free app called battery care, its lite and pretty useful, tell you when you need to discharge your battery and stuff like that.

 

where can I get the program ?

 

here you go:

http://batterycare.bkspot.com/en/download.html

 

You're right there's no memory and one should avoid frequent full discharges. However, from my personal experience, if you don't let your battery fully discharge at least once in a few months, the max capacity will most like decrease up to 70% of the stock total in less than a year.

Coo! I wonder what algorithms it uses to determine when you need to discharge the battery?

 

don't really know the algorithms they use, i just do what ever the blinking screen tells me, lol. maybe check their site for more info.

 

i've always wondered this... If you mainly have your m17x plugged in most of the time, would it be better to simply remove the battery? Does the battery get worse if not used at all?

 

When not charging the baterry I just let it plugged with the battery disabled

 

You risk losing your work (or gaming saves ) at the very least. It doesn't harm your battery to stay ON while you're plugged in. The calibration is especially useful if you work unplugged often.