Breaking in New Li-On battery?

So, i looked through the battery guide and didn't really see anything about breaking in a new battery. I've read that you need to do 3 full charge and deep discharge cycles. Other people say you just need to over charge the battery for ~5 hours the first time you use it, and then you're good after that. Is there any actual concrete thing to do that's factual.

 

First, its Li-Ion for lithium Ion.
Second; Lithium Ion batteries are non-habit forming, meaning you can charge and discharge them in any way and they will operate the same as when you first got it. Never over-charge a battery, even if it has a smart chip. The only reason you would need to "over-charge" is if you have a laptop that has a powerful gpu where you need the power to run it's full potential, running on battery will cause lag on most systems.

 

So, I shouldn't charge my laptop battery past 100% even though its brand new, correct?

 

It's okay too, but try to avoid it, it's unnecessary power draw from the wall (once it drops to 99.9%, it will charge that .1% even tho it's not really needed)

 

Another question: If I'm going to be gaming for a couple hours (4-5 hours), should I remove my battery at like 90-95% and just play on the AC adaptor? Or should I let the battery get to 20-30%, plug it in till 90-100%, unplug and repeat?

 

Don't remove the battery, just play. Do you have discrete graphics?

 

Most damage to the Lithium-ion chemistry occurs at the extremes of the charge range (ie when fully charging and fully discharging). The former is mitigated by the charge rate being automatically reduced as the battery charge approaches 100%. In my experience,most computers stop charging once the battery reaches 100% and, if the computer is left plugged into the mains, don't start charging the battery again until the charge level has dropped by several percent.

One should also avoid fully draining the battery more than necessary although this may be required every 6 months or so to enable the battery's chip to recalibrate the battery capacity.

John

 

Just use your laptop as you normally would. If you want more precise battery measurement, then do a drain to 5% capacity (don't rapid drain it) every 6-9 months as noted by John Ratsey. Let your laptop manage it for the most part. It does it best. There's no way to charge over 100% that I know of, except with a faulty laptop or battery chip.