leaving AC adapter in?

hello, so i just got my dell studio 1558. Is it ok to charge the laptop overnight while the laptop is turned off?? I was told it still sends voltage to the battery and heats it up and is not the best thing for the battery, so i wanted to check. I would think they have technology to turn off the charging after 100%. thanks!

 

Nah don't worry about it. Modern batteries know when they're fully charged and automatically stop charging when they're full!

Keeping your battery as cool as possible... now that's a must!

 

The battery will be okay. But, you will be wasting electricity every night. Either unplug the AC adapter cord from the wall socket, or turn off the power bar. There's no sense in needlessly wasting energy.

 

Leaving it in overnight is OK. If you leave it plugged in for like a week or so without using the battery then that's bad.

Also, drain the battery to 0% monthly at least.

 

Using 1-2 watts constantly isn't worth the effort of unplugging the adapter every day.

 

@fred2028: Do you really drain your battery to 0%? I lose 1-2% capacity each time. My total battery time of use has dropped down from like 4 hr 30 min to 4 hr since last year (when I've drained it about 6 times). I've lost 10% capacity till now. I've not experienced any drop in capacity when I never drain it.

 

Yea, I noticed if I drained it it will lose some capacity (14% now) I stopped doing that and it stays there.

 

My unit is operating on AC probably in excess of 95% of the time. I never unplug it from the wall or drain the battery. Yet, after about 10 months of ownership, my battery is still operating at 100% of its initial rating. Battery technology has come a long way. Even if it were still the case that special measures needed to be taken to extend the life of the battery, the gain, relative to effort, does not, for me, justify the effort.

 

This isn't exactly what is going on. You're battery loses capacity regardless, but it REPORTS the change only when the battery charge level is low. In fact, it's good to drain the battery to the point of the laptop of the laptop hibernating/ shutting down once in a while.

 

Well I use HWMonitor to check battery wear and every time I drain it after excessive wear it reduces it.

 

I almost always run my laptop on AC power and the battery wear is still only 8% (purchased in July last year). Furthermore, it's stayed at 8% for a very long time now and doesn't seem to be going any lower.

 

Hmm.....
Would the -rate- of reduction in capacity be much SLOWER, though, then actually draining it, as some of us have found, because, yes, I know eventually the battery will reduce capacity normally regardless, but the fact that some of us get a significant unarguable reduction in the reported value might suggest draining the battery accelerates the rate.

For instance, I'd be at 7200, and after 5 months of use, it is still at 7200 at fully charged. Then, let's say I drain the battery, I recharge, and 100% is now only at 7000, after 1 day. I keep the charger in, don't let it drain, it stays at 7000 for the next 6 months at 100% charge, I drain again, and now down to 6800 at 100% charge.

 

I leave my battery in 24/7 and no problems yet

 

There's a lot of stuff going on with batteries. Heat kills batteries more than anything else, so if you're fully draining it quickly (with a game or synthetic benchmark) it could be much hotter for longer than if you only drained a third of the battery 3 times, in three separate occasions. As long as you don't do anything extreme when on battery (or smother it with a bed or anything) it really should not make a difference.

 

I believe this is because a full discharge/charge will reset the battery circuit and hence the updated value. More info here Charging lithium-ion batteries

 

Even i leave my battery all the time like 24 7, its been 2 years now, im getting almost 2hours n 20min back up from my 6cell battery. still no probs yet

 

hi guys..
i got 14% wear level for my battery and it is only 1 month old..according to hwmonitor
i suspect this is not normal right?

 

Well it's not abnormal! Just see how it goes over the next month, it should stay at about 14% for a while. If not then you probably have a problem!

 

thanks for your feedback..

i will check the battery wear level constantly after this..