Charging new notebook battery

I couldn't find anything in the dummies section, so...

What's the standard procedure for a new notebook? I've heard that you charge it to 100% and discharge all the way before using it. Some people say to do that at least 3 times. How many times should one do that?

Would it matter if I charged it to 100% and used it for a while on A/C, then discharged it later?

 

Charge it all the way, but you should never discharge it all the way. Sometimes batteries can get *too* discharged.... take it down to 10-15%. Then yes, charge it all the way again. You will find that the battery probably hits its maximum stride a few times after you've cycled it.

It doesn't matter if you use it for a while on A/C, but if you plan on using the notebook on A/C most of the time, leave the battery out.

 

.... we've got a dummies section? Someone should go and tell all the dummies out there if that's the case!

There's nothing wrong with fully discharging a LiIon battery pack..... You don't need to fully charge them..... or fully discharge them...... You can leave them plugged in, or fully discharge them everyday if you want. In a year, you're still going to lose about 5-10% of the life over a year regardless.

In other words..... don't worry about.... They're not perfect, but it's hard to really screw them up. However, I would agree with SR above by saying if you're going to leave the system plugged in all the time, you could take the battery out just to be on the safe side. The fact of the matter is though that it doesn't reaaaaaly matter. If you leave the battery out, it's still going to lose life even sitting on a shelf. We try to circulate all of our batteries within a 4-5 months period because after that they start to lose a little life. If you leave it in, the system will cut power to it once it's charged, so overcharging is not possible (that would be bad if that weren't the case though). If you take it out, then you won't have a charged battery when you need to use the laptop.... without a cord... imagine that?! If you charge the battery before you take it out, it's not going to stat charged forever... maybe 3-4 weeks tops. So it's your call.

 

Its kind of confusing. your battery will lose life plugged in or not every year. But lithium ion batterys also do have a max time they should be charged. like cell phones batterys tech have a 500 charge lifetime.

 

You're right, and I think the notebook batteries are like 1000 times, but that doesn't mean if you have a 90% full battery and you charge it up to 100% that it counts as 1 charge..... those are just average numbers which you're bound to be around........

 

So here's what I've been wondering... What does as one charge? What percentage discharged then charged up to full makes a charge? Or, if I discharge it to say, 50% two times and both times then charge it back to full, do those two charges combined equal one charge?

 

do you mean, "what does *count* as one charge? It's a total BS average.... I mean, if you recharge from 50%, two would count as one.... but that's not even correct, because it's an average based on total discharges and total charges, one right after the next...... that's just to give you an idea. Basically, after a year, your battery should have 85-90% life retained, regardless. After two years, you should be down around 65-70% and so on and so forth...... after three years you're going to want to buy a new battery because you should be down under 50%.

Period.. end of story... anything more is speculative. I've pretty much the only one in here who has extended experience with Asus' notebooks and batteries over the course of many years....... The batteries themselves have gotten better close to 2-3 times in the last 5-6 years, but in the last 3, they've all been pretty consistent. The newest batteries, such as those on all of the new Centrino Duo models may end up being better than the rest as their cells were update this years, but only time will tell.

 

Thanks for all the input!

In that case, does it not matter if the first thing I do is 100% charge/100% discharge? That's the feeling I've been getting.

 

Yes, I believe that is what they are trying to tell you.

 

Yeah, it doesn't matter....... it'll have about a 15-20% charge in it when you get it anyway.... Those are charged at the factory to test them and by time you get them, it's been at least 3-4 weeks, so the charge gets down to 15% or so.... It's a common suggestion though that you let the thing charge up first, but if you plug it in and turn it on, it's still going to charge... Either way, I think you're going to be fine and I wouldn't worry about it.

 

oh yeah... can you tell i was a little distracted when I wrote that? Oops. So there's no straightforward explanation. One of these days I really need to test the wear level on my three year old battery... it's going disgustingly strong using run-down time as a judge.

 

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/

sums it all up for you. Basically a charge cycle is from very low, to full charge. It is actually not reconmened to keep the batteries in a low state of charge. I assume the battery protection circuit actually cuts the power off as it reaches the critical voltage of around 2.7V (maybe even higher).

This means that when your computer reads 0%, all the batteries are at around 3V. Li-ion batteries also do not like being overcharged so I assume the charge circuit will COMPLETELY cut off the power and NOT trickle charge. Continuous trickle charge at 100% shortens the lifespan. That is why most computers stop charging at 99% and when the battery self discharges to 97%, it will start charging again. This is a good sign that the charge circuit works =D

Anyways, if you store a battery for long periods, it should be stored at 80% charge.

In short, I stand by charging when ever I can because you get a lot more cycles if you go from 80% to 100% than from 10% to 100%. If you have a plug near by, plug it in. If you don't, so be it =D

 

the batterys have circuits to protect them from over charging and under charging. leaving it plugged in makes little to no effect. i have dealt with hundreds of laptops. batterys just die when its time. it will last 2-3 years with heavy use. just use the pc as you want. older batterys def used to be effected but not so anymore.

 

A question related to this: my old M6BNe notebook cracked in a car crash in early March, batt was on full charge. I only got around to repairing it now, and I expect it back in 1-2 weeks. The battery hasn't been plugged in since March.

How much damage do you suppose this caused to the battery? I.e., should I expect needing to buy a new batt as well after I get it back?

Thanks