Notebook Battery Guide

I figure it doesn't hurt to ask a question on this thread.
Does anyone know if the some of the rules mentioned here (recommended to charge battery at 10-20% level, heat being the worse enemy, fully discharging every 30 times, etc) also apply to cell phone Li-Ion batteries?

 

Please Note that New Sony Laptops rejects non-sony batteries!!!

 

Really usefull this article, great job chrisyano. I want to ask chrisyano:
I have an hp pavilion 8284 almost 1 year, i rarely travels and takes laptop with me, so my laptop is more desktop. The first 4 months the battery was on laptop and i charge to 100% and discharge untill the laptop closed. The laptop works about 15 hours everyday. I considered to remove the battery and store because of many hours works. I read that is good to charge the battery 3-4 times every month so i charged the battery to 100% and discharge untill the laptop closed (i didn t know). Now it s stored and almost empty. I recently run an hp utility calls battery check, i calibrated first and indicates 90%, the battery lasts about 2 hours and 15 minutes(?). 2 questions to chrisyano:

1)Now the battery is stored and almost empty, i should charge to 40% then remove and store? and
2)how many times per month should do this procedure to charge the battery so to keep battery in a good condition?

P.S.->2 hours and 15 minutes, is it normally lasts so little?
P.S.->Sorry 4 bad english

Thanx in advance...

 

The Li-Ion batteries that are used in cell phones probably do behave similarly to the Li-Ion batteries in notebook computers. They are, however, much lighter-duty than notebook Li-Ions since they don't need to deliver nearly as much power. The same wear-and-tear will apply...and I have had some batteries (particularly the thin and light ones) exhibit major degradation fairly quickly. I don't see how following the above practices could hurt the battery, but I am not sure if they would help a whole lot either.

Yes. Sony is quite strict about what batteries are compatible with their systems--particularly for the reasons stated in the guide. There are a number of stories about Sony systems rejecting generic batteries. Some members have managed to bypass this and use them anyway though. If any of you choose to do so, please be aware of the potential risks involved with lower-cost batteries (discussed in the guide).

I think 2 hours and 15 minutes is still rather decent for a 1-year old battery. Particularly since you did a lot of full discharges in the first four months--and those take away from some of the overall life of the battery. What was the battery life like when the battery was brand new? Also keep in mind that notebook batteries are only expected to give you between one and three useful years of life before they need to be replaced. It should give you another year of life at least I think.

To answer your second question--the guide states that you want to do a calibration every 30 cycles or so. That would probably be about once a month assuming you had the battery connected at all times. If you are going to keep it in prolonged storage--keep it stored at about a 40% charge level.

Please feel free to ask any further questions and I will try to answer them as best I can.

 

How long should I charge a new laptop with a large 9-cell battery?
After the first charge, should I run it down to its cut off point and give it a full charge because it is new?

 

i wish i read this article sooner. i completely drained out a new battery before storing it a few months... now the battery for my T42 doesn't hold it's charge anymore. grrrr. Nice article. thanks

 

This is a great guide and very informative. I now feel save in using my laptop sans battery and leaving it plugged in. As I only use my laptop at home there doesn't seem to be much point in using the battery. I will however use it every now and again in case I need to move around the house.

 

chrisyano, is there an upper charge threshold limit that we should set the battery to stop charging at, or should the battery be fully charged to 100%?

For example, i have set the "Start charging when below x" to 15% in the Power Management. The other column states "Stop charging at y." What should y be?

 

I'm surprised nobody's asked this question...
Do all laptops have a feature where when they get down to he auto-shutoff or auto-hibernate mode that it doesn't corrupt any system data, as in a full power outage?

Otherwise, calibrating would do more damage than good, rolling the dice on messing up the system.

 

Some users do charge their new battery for an extended period the first few times and run them all the way down to the cutoff point. This is actually a practice that was more necessary with the older Metal Hydride batteries. Some manuals, however, will recommend doing so--so if you want to be completely safe and go by the book, I don't see that doing any harm.

I am sorry to hear that. Luckily replacement batteries are generally easy to find and usually are not overly expensive (but not in all cases). Good luck with your next set of Li-Ions.

Thank you for your kind words.

Most batteries and systems already have that preconfigured. I would think you could set it to something like 97% and let the charger trickle charge the rest. There's more discussion on trickle charging in the guide itself.

Calibrating does not require running the system until it actually shuts down by itself. You can shut down manually when the system warns you the battery levels are critical and then charge back up to complete the cycle. You can let it shut itself down, however, I would recommend you have all data saved or backed up before allowing the system to do so. I only let it run that low when I'm testing battery life of a system.

 

Chris, if the newer Li-ion batteries have the chip in it, as mine, what need is to calibrate as in the older battery technology? If I read it right, the chip is supposed to protect and inform the laptop on the battery health and charge. Darn, I see no calibration method even listed for my 1705, but may have missed it.

On the other hand my 13 month old "smart" battery quit holding a full charge, I believe one cell went bad, which is something a chip can't protect you from.

Side note; I read that newer Li-ion technology, Popuar Science, is on the way with higher and safer technology.

 

Calibration is to keep the fuel gauge accurate. The system reads information from the battery and calibration will help to make sure it knows how much charge is being held to a more certain degree. It will only help some, it will not be a day-and-night difference for you if you calibrate regularly or not.

Li-Ions are only expected to last 1-3 years after manufacture before needing replacement. It's possible you got a battery from older stock, or that you were just unlucky. I've usually gotten more than that with my notebooks; but cell phone batteries have gotten much weaker much faster than anticipated on me.

Yeah, battery technology is constantly improving. Are you talking about Li-polymer cells?

 

I accidentally ran my Battery Calibration Utility in the bios and just decided to let it finish. Then I read online that these utilities are harmful to your battery. Any truth in that?

 

I wouldn't worry too much about that. It probably did exactly what the manufacturer wants you to do to maintain the battery, so if anything it probably did some good.

Remember, your battery's life clock is already ticking. Just enjoy while it's fresh rather than trying to stop what can't be stopped.

 

for the first time i charge a laptop battery (brand new), should i be discharging it to 0% in order to have it "learn" its maximum memory? or should i follow the tips listed on page 1 ?

 

how long is "prolonged"? if i were to use my laptop at night, and leave the battery in while on AC, it would be at 100% at the end of my use. it is best to discharge to 40% before turning it off just to use it portably the next day? or even in a few days?

 

There is a bit of controversy about this topic. Some notebook manuals will direct you to do a full discharge for the first few cycles of your battery's use. I see no harm being done if you follow their instructions. You will only discharge to the cut-off point anyway; if you did discharge to 0% you would render the battery useless (as discussed in the section about partial vs. full discharges).

The practice of charging for 24 hours and then doing full discharges in itself is something that was more necessary with older battery technologies--particularly Metal Hydride batteries.

Prolonged storage is more for users who will be leaving their notebooks on AC power for weeks, even months at a time. At that point, it may be beneficial to them to store their batteries at 40% charge to save some of the mini-cycles that can occur when on AC continuously (slow discharge to ~93% followed by trickle charge back to 100%). But then you lose the battery's ability to serve as backup power if there is a power shortage.

 

I would like to buy a laptop with long battery life (more than 4-5 hours) pls help me performance and other characteristics doesn't matter .... screen resolution i think will be less then 15" i don't know exactly ...however i'm waiting for advices and proposes.The main activity laptop should execute is opening word documents that means only typing ... Thank You anticipate

ps Sorry for my English

 

hi every one in here, actually i had a little problem with my new used Dell latitude c160 (i couldn't afford to buy a new one and that model matches my needs for alaptop) any way thanx alot for all of u especailly chrisyano for the amount of info i got from you guys....any way i will tell u about my proplem now cuz this is why i joined this beautiful community...

 

i knew before that if i wanted to charge my laptop battery i have to shut it off...and what asurprise i found out that my c160 charges while i'm ON....but on my AC Power on and my battery is charging , when it finishes charging and sais 100% remaining and between the two brackets (CHARGING),,,,can any one tells me whyyyyyy?
i was so afraid to keep on working like that so i decided to remove my battery as long as i'm on the ac power mode....but is this the best solution....sorry for comlaining alot i'm still newbie on laptops.

 

Just for reference, I have a Li-Ion battery pack for my weed wacker and it sits in it's charging cradle 99.8% (I actually calculated it - geek!) of the time except for the 30 minutes a week spring/summer/fall that I use it. It has lasted four years strong so far. It sits in my basement storage area which is usually abou 20C. I am assuming it is discharged to probably 50% after use, and then stored at near 100% (in charger). So I'm not real concerned in general about it.

My wife's ancient Sony Vaio laptop (AthlonXP 1500+) battery lasted over three years with frequent use, plugged in probably 80% of the time.

I think battery life is important, and taking good care of it too, just like anything else, but don't worry so much about it. If your battery starts degrading quickly, buy a new one. In most cases, even if you leave it plugged in 90% of the time, you should get a solid two years before noticing any degredation. This is all based on personal experience. YMMV.

 

thanx alot for ur answer man, i hope that i can hear more from u guys

 

The LCD is the single biggest power sucker in a laptop. Select the smallest practical screen size. If you're comfortable with 12" laptop, got for that. If like me, have fat fingers and big hands then let 14" be your minimum.

The <13" ultra-portables also sometimes come with ultra low voltage CPUs that reduce power consumption even more. But they are pricey - sometimes upto twice the price of mainstream midsize (14-15") consumer models.

 

I was wondering if v6000 applies to both dv6000 and 6500. Seeing as I recently bought a 12 cell and would like the option to get a more portable 6 cell batt if needed. The only batterys I could find were labeled v6000.

Is that compatible with my Hp Pavillion dv6500 ?

for example
HP 6-cell Li-Ion Replacement Battery for Pavilion dv2000, dv6000, Presario V3000, V6000

Bump?

 

Question: On a HP Pavilion zx5000 series, I'm at a point where there is no charge on the battery, (I disconnect A/C and computer dies) and it seems that it will not take a charge. The charge light is flashing and the charge meter shows 4% charge. I'm guessing that the battery is dead and needs to be replaced, but is there a way to know whether it is the battery, or the charger without having to buy a new battery? I went through this on another computer (part of the reason I got this one) and it turned out that the charger itself was not working.

 

Great guide chrisyano. Muchly appreciated indeed!

Okay, I just have to ask!

How come nearly every single time the word battery was used in this 13 page thread, it was colored red?

I've never witnessed such a thing before - I mean did everyone purposefully color the word battery red, or was there some script performing the color conversion automatically?

Just curious.

 

Since I mostly use AC power, will leaving the battery in the laptop after it's charged to 100% shorten the life of it significantly? So far, I've read that for the people who mainly use AC power, they should discharge to 40% and keep in a plastic bag in an well tempered area, correct? Is it necessarily bad to keep the battery in the laptop, charged at 100% while using AC power all day long? How much storage capacity is lost if it's done like that? I've had my laptop HP DV 6000 series for about 4 months and not once have I taken the battery out and I used AC power for most of the day while the battery is 100% full and it's still good.

 

What's happening is the system is "trickle charging" your battery. Either that, or your system is older than trickle-charging technology and it is continuously charging the battery when it is connected.

Either way I wouldn't sweat it too much. The battery will only last for so long anyway.

I believe a v6000 battery would be compatible with all v6000-series notebooks. I'm quite sure but am not 100% certain. Perhaps a quick call to HP's parts department would give you a definitive answer.

Sounds like a dead battery. Does the system power up with the battery removed but the AC adapter plugged in? If so, it's definitely the battery.

It's because you did a forum search with the keyword 'battery'. You then clicked on one of the posts or threads yielded by that search. That's why your query is now in red.

I wouldn't worry too much about that. I leave my battery in on my notebook all the time while it's still plugged in. It's a great backup power source should there be a power outage. You're only losing a little bit of overall capacity life when the system trickle-charges the battery every day or two. And those are not full discharges either, so the overall effect will be rather small.

Of course, putting the battery into prolonged storage will slow the cells' degradation rate, but by doing so the battery will still be slowly dying. My philosophy is to not worry about the battery. By the time it's too weak to be of any use to you, you'll probably want a new notebook anyway.

 

im not sure if this question has been answered in the guide since im not too knowledgable on the technical terms, but would it be detrimental to the battery if i leave my laptop constantly charged with the AC adapter? or is it better to just recharge it everytime it reaches 10-20%?

 

It is OK to leave charged except once a month discharge completely and recharge completely. The losses from leaving charged and therefor "topping off" are minor and vs the inconvenience I think not worth the trouble.

 

powerpack answers your question very well below:

 

Quick question: is there a program available that will alert me when my battery is in a preset range, say for instance 10%-20%?

I mean I know I can always look for the utility in the system tray, but if I'm watching a movie or playing a game or whatever, I may not always be able to see my battery meter, or I may just plain forget to look for it.

 

In XP (Vista must have similar?) Control Panel, Power Options, second tab over “Alarms” you can set to 2 alarms to notify you when battery reaches certain points. Will it work with movie or game not sure.

 

Awesome, thanks powerpack.

 

Now, all the people looking to pick a "fight" tonight. tale a deIs it possible to find this Guide somewhere I can save it as one file, in its entirety? Not to put anybody on the definsive but I am curious about the authpr(s).Is there one author of this Guide? What are the "credentials" in the battery knowledge area from the author(s)? Self-knowledge, research on your own? What is the best way to find out what kind of battery, hence focusing my reading for now, on the battery that is on my new MacBookPro. I set it to the mot efficient setting but let the notebook decide what those setting were. I was shocked being out downtown when I first got the notebook tapping into a Hot Spot since I had no internet at that time and the battery only lasted me about 3 hours.

I would think when the notebook continues changing the numerous options it changes after not using i for a certain amount if time would take more power than leaving it set at one "energy star" setting. make sense?
Anyway, the first question about where i can get a copy of this Guide in its entirety would be great.

Thanks, and thanks to all the people like this gentleman who but work into helping other people for no case reward but for the inner feeling that I think is much better than cash, but I know I am of-it.


God Bless---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222222

 

Here are two Apple sights, they should help. If you want to save this guide
I would suggest the old fashioned cut and paste method as no one has offered money to publish! If you are offering money and want to include contributions I will be first in line!

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=305405

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

 

I asked this somewhere else on the forum, but I just wanted to get your intake Chrisyano:

What would be the ideal thing to do when it comes to preserving my battery? I'm in high school and while my laptop is being used at home most of the time, I like to bring it to school for about 4 days every 2 weeks. So should I:

a. Keep my battery on AC Power at all times at home, and just let it go down at school?
b. Charge the battery and let it run down to about 50% at home before charging it again to establish some sort of "rule"?

 

looking for a realistic answer to my question about anybody know where this guide can be found so that I can save it in its entirety?

Thanks. Not interested in replies like the one from this person. Shows that he does not know how the guide is posted.

 

well if heat is a major problem. what if i made like small stand and stuck two small cpu fans under it blowing nice cool air on it =), then it would stay at almost room tempture. wouldnt that be better for the battery also?

 

Is there any windows vista free or commercial application similar to what acbpowermeter is for pocket pcs ?

http://www.acbpocketsoft.com/Products/acbPowerMeter/acbPowerMeter-Overview-2.html

 

From reading through this thread, it would seem that for the person who mostly uses his laptop on AC power, and who wants to always keep the battery in the laptop to operate as an uninteruptable power supply, but wants to preserve the battery as long as possible, the best strategy would be to set the computer to start charging the battery when it reaches the 40% charge level and stop charging when the battery reaches the 50 or 60% level.

Such a charging strategy would:
1) allow the battery to remain at or near the optimal 40% charge level recommended for long term storage,
2) Still have sufficient charge in the battery so it could act as an uninteruptable power supply if/when needed.
3) Minimize the charge/discharge cycles the battery is subjected to.

The downside of this strategy is that if you needed to take your laptop off AC and operate on the battery, you would need to remember to change the setting ahead of time to charge it up to 100%. But for people like me who use their laptop on AC about 99% of the time, I think this might be the way to go.

 

You would figure a strategy like that would work really well. However, I don't know of any programs that currently do that.

I was wondering how long do batteries last in the fridge? Considering that heat is the big enemy as more chemical reactions take place. With a 40% charge and every year discharged/charged/discharged to 40% then placed back in the fridge, how long would that last?

Its not exactly my plan, but I do have a modular bay battery that I will use maybe 5-10 weeks a year. So most of its life will be in the fridge.

 

Great idea. Newer sony laptops have a battery care function in their software. Fujitsu laptops won't charge the battery when you plug the AC power while the battery is above 90%, am I right? And I saw some Asus laptops doing the same method too.

But the question is, if we leave the battery in while plugging in AC power, when we look at the battery icon in the system tray and they say it is not charging, will the temperature inside the battery rise?

And is there a specific software to control the battery charging level? Like the method you have just stated. Charging at 40%, and stop charging at 50% or 60%

 

I just got a new HP dv9644ca and I just checked the wear on it, and the wear is already 31% after just 3 days of me having it. The hp battery check says that the battery is good. I tried to see how long the battery would run for and it lasted about 2:40. Half was web surfing with quite a dim screen and the other half was in power saver with dimmest screen and wireless off just doing homework in word. So reading through the thread some people have had the battery for a year and the wear is just 25%. I have an 8 cell battery and the designed capacity was 88800 mwh and it is now at around 61915 mwh. So what should I do here? Is this normal? Thanks!

 

Hi Chrisyano,
Great article! I have read through this thread and I still have three questions:

1. Is discharging from 100% to 20% considered a full discharge or is it a partial discharge? I am not sure since you said full discharge should be avoided and only be done once every 30 cycles to calibrate the battery.

2. When recharging, is it better to recharge it all the way to 100% or it does not matter (i.e. to some arbitrary numbers such as 80% or 90%)?

3. I read through the complementary links you posted and one of the guidelines stood out: "Charge the Li-ion often, except before a long storage. Avoid repeated deep discharges." So, all in all, the message I got is: Just charge whenever convenience (dont have to worry about charging to 100%) while avoiding the power level below 20%. Is this correct?

Thank you in advance

 

1. large partial.
2. does not matter as Li-Ion do not suffer from memory effect "proper" or "pseudo", there is no reason to arbitrarily stop charging at 80% consistently but if you need to stop no harm doing, and charging to 100% as long as not going into longterm storage.
3. you got the message pretty good but no problem discharging below 20% as long as recharge and don't leave for to long of a period (say months). If you run the battery completely empty you should not store as can ruin it. We are not talking a day a week much longer.

Remember the best way to make your battery last the longest is to store in a fridge with a 40% charge.

Not very practical, use it and replace when needed.

Oh yea I know I am not Chrisyano but I couldn't resist!

 

Thanks Powerpack. Repped.

 

Hi all, I hope someone responds to me... I have a problem with my new hp 6720s notebook. I know that Li-Ion batteries do not need to be formatted but on someone else's advice, after 4-5 normal discharges and 1/2 charge ( first time I plugged it in to install the operating system ) I did a 2 times formatting, 12h each. I saw in BatteryMon and other softwares that my battery is stated as 42,9Wh instead of 47Wh. As i wanted to gain more battery, I did 3 complete discharges one after the other ( to calibrate the battery ) and the result was that from 42,9Wh increased to 44,08Wh. Then, I charged it again for more than 10h and did again a complete discharge and now it shows only 42,206Wh I'm so disappointed, I hope I didn't messed up my battery too much. I need some help/advice on how to recondition it to 47Wh or closer to that, and I promise to myself I will never do several consecutive full discharges ever ! Please,someone, help me with advice.. The laptop is brand new, so is the battery. Last time I checked, in full brightness with music and no wifi it took the battery 2.5h to discharge. I'm pretty happy with this interval but I know it can do the better, only that I do not want it to perform worse because of my misuse. So, please someone help me.... I do not want to mess up my battery forever! Now it is on charge again and I will unplug it when I go home, please advise me on what to do.

 

Don't panic, you did nothing to harm your battery. Why does it not take the full charge? I don't know but do know none do. Just because it is new to you does not mean the batt has not been sitting around for 6 months. I don't know that is the problem but I would not worry. Fully discharging and doing a partial charge will not harm your batt, so relax.

 

Thanks! But I would like some advice on how to bring it to 47Whr its full capacity, and also some advices on how to take care of it.