To plug it in or not to plug it in...

Ok basically my question is about the battery in a laptop but more specifically in a gaming laptop. I'm such its common knowledge that when gaming you should have the the power setting on high performance and that if you have a dedicated and a integrated graphics card pressing fn+f7 switches to dedicated exclusively giving you a better fps turn out.

But my question is. i heard leaving the laptop plugged in while the battery is at 100% shortens the batteries life span. Would it be better to take the battery out during gaming and just have the laptop on AC? for one i think the main advantage would be that the laptop should run cooler and that if you have a cooling mat with a fan the cold air would have to travel through less material and be able to transfer cooler temps to the components inside?

Anyways what do you guys think cause i really wanna know what you guys do when gaming on a laptop. i want to make my battery live as long as possible .

 

That's not REALLY true. You should cycle the battery regularly (run it down to zero and then charge it up again) but leaving it plugged in while the battery is at 100% will not cause damage to the battery.

 

everyone has their own opinion on this but as the saying goes the proof is in the pudding.

heat is a batterys worst enemy.
now my 4 year old fujitsu's battery is totally dead after 2 years. not even enough power to turn on the screen at bootup. this has always been left plugged in.
my gaming m860tu laptop battery only had 25% battery power after 11 months. this was alo left plugged in.
the replacement under warranty still has 98% charge after 3 years and i remove it when i know i will be using mains for long periods of time. its best to remove the battery with a 40% charge as its documented that this is the best for it and not remove with 100% charge.

as hockeymass stated, if its going to be left in for long periods of time then a total drain and charge is the best thing for longer life.

the most important thing is never use the battery for heavy duty gaming as it just cant cope with the power drain and will damage it over time.

check my signature for battery care or battery monitor which are both free bits of software to monitor your battery.

 

Of the large number of laptops I've owned over the years, none had any issues with leaving the laptop in while gaming. Yes heat is bad, but if your system heats up the battery, you bought a VERY poorly designed laptop and would recommend returning it or selling it for something else. I've had a number of "older" gaming laptops that I've sold to family/friends and the battery always held up with the battery in and plugged in 90% of the time. Your battery will lose charge over time regardless. The biggest contributors to loss of capacity are:

(1) Constant draining and recharging - but that's what it's intended to do, expect 500 cycles before it reaches < 50% capacity. A cycle can be 10 10% drains & recharge, 5 20% drains & recharge, 2 50% drains & recharge, etc. Doesn't need to be a full discharge and recharge all at once. However, it is advisable, as noted by others, every few months to do a full discharge and recharge to recalibrate the battery.
(2) Rapid discharge/charge - gaming on battery draining 30-40W+ (if your laptop allows it) can quickly degrade cells
(3) Heat - I'd be more concerned about leaving your laptop battery in a hot car than using it plugged in your laptop while gaming.

Batteries are relatively inexpensive to replace, and something you'll have to replace after 2.5-3 years whether left in your laptop or not. I'd rather spend $60-80 for a new battery after 2 years than lose important data or damage my system from accidentally pulling the plug on the laptop while using it and not having the battery there. If you have a spare battery then yes best thing you can do is drain (slowly) to 40% and store it in a cool place (like your basement). But for a regular battery, keep it in. The risks far outweigh the benefit of having a battery possibly having 10% more charge than if you didn't remove it.

Users spend hundreds of dollars on UPS backups for their desktops yet are always wary about keeping a $50-80 battery in a system that is designed to use it and is so much more prone to accidental unplugs.

 

I always have my battery attached in my laptop.
After 18 months of having my Qosmio spending 95% of the time plugged into an outlet, and sitting on my desk, I only have 5% wear on my battery [which I attribute to age and use when on battery].

 

I agree with what WingNut said: the risks outweigh the benefits

 

Just finished talking to dell and the battery doctors and they pretty much said the same thing. You can and should leave the battery plugged in because when the AC is attached and the batter is full the AC will completely bypass the battery. 2nd they said the only really thing that will kill a battery is the heat but they continued to add that since the m17x has the battery located at the front of the laptop there is no need to worry about the vents heating up the battery especially since my laptop is on a cooling mat.

 

Alex..you got a good one. My 2nd battery is up to 18% wear after 4 months. I always had good luck with Sanyo cells but have no idea what Tosh is using these days. There is really no need for any back up UPS as long as we keep the batteries installed and don't try to game with them.

All in all, HT hit it on the head, batteries are just a tool. I watch to see if pack will last my 1 year warranty, every thing after that is lagniappe.

On the other hand if any of you fly RC heli's, you are lucky to get 50 full time flights out of your LiPo's; and not catch fire when charging or after hard crash. These are cheaper than laptop cells, no protection, but act the same; the more you cycle them, the faster you buy them.