Notebook Battery Guide

What is the best way off preserving battery life if I don't want to remove the battery from my notebook? charging and then using the battery until 10-20% then charge again till 100% then unplug it and wait till it reach 10-20% then repeat again? or just plug the notebook whenever there is power outlet? or maybe like the first one but instead 20% maybe 40-50%?

 

Damn, I've probably already ruined my battery within one month of having my laptop. I've always though you should re-charge any electrical appliance which has a battery, at cut-off point e.g. 2% on laptops. But now I know this ain't the case!!! lol .

Another one of my presumptions -
If your notebook battery is in the middle of being re-charged and you unplug the power supply (which was charging the battery) for between 10mins, to 10hrs, will this significantly harm the battery?

And finally,
Something I do often is to finish my re-charge at night (100%) before I go to bed. And then use the battery in the day for untill it runs out, plug the AC adapter in, re-charge, when its finished charging its night and I go to bed and so on and so on. Is this bad?

 

Is it true that continuing to charge the battery after it is already fully charged will shorten battery life? I regularly hear this about other devices (ipod, phone, etc) but I don't know if it's true or not.

 

No, it is designed to know when almost full and reduce/stop charging. But so I guess it is bad to keep charging when full but you are not able to so don't worry.

 

All modern charging devices should have a trickle charge feature.

 

All you are doing is fine!

 

Awesome Battery T1PS !!!

REP +

 

i like to leave my laptop plugged into to the wall, but when i don't use my laptop i close the lid and it goes into stand-by or hibernate. since the pc isn't actually on there is little to no heat, and the battery is usually at 100% so its finished charging. Is this a bad idea or will the battery be mostly unaffected? Thank you in advance!

 

No, as see above and posted on previous pages. The circuit protects your batt from overcharging and running out. Yes putting in the freezer will prolong the life of you batt, but so would not driving your new car, but would you do that? Keep it plugged in, don't worry! your batt is likely to last 1 to 2 years maybe 3 after that who knows.

 

My battery is still alive on my HP that's over 4 years old. Only get about 45 minutes on it though.

 

i've had my laptop for about half a year, the notebook hardware control says the wear level is only 5%, but i've lost 10-15 minutes battery life on it... would it just be i'm using more demanding programs/tasks or notebook hardware control's wear level isnt that accurate?

 

I use MobileMeter on this Toshiba that is 2 and it says 0%. I don't know if I believe that either.

 

You are a smart girl as that is impossible.

 

The entire purpose of calibration is to calibrate the level indicator. Unlike liquid fuel, battery's energy content can't be directly measured, but it's relatively easy to detect full and empty conditions.

When you fully charge the battery and fully discharge it, the on-board counter actually counts the cumulative energy leaving the pack, then uses this information to estimate the remaining capacity.

After it's fully discharged, the battery monitor (inside the pack) also monitors the energy entering the cell. This would allow it to remember the Wh extractable per Wh pumped in.

The charge efficiency is not linear throughout the full range of capacity, but the industry has a pretty good approximation, so it's built into calculation formula.

The estimation formula is not a perfect model of the battery, so over multiple partial discharges and charges, error accumulates and reported remaining capacity drifts off.

A liquid surface level can be measured directly, so there is no drift, but if you can't measure directly and had to depend on the liters that came out, liters that went in and asked to report the current capacity of the tank, you will be slightly off due to small errors in each measurement. Eventually error becomes significant enough that you'll have to fill to the very top and re-align your reference.

 

I tend to like my ac pluged in while my battery is in. So my question is would how much of difference would it make if i started to unplug the battery and having the ac connected?months ? weeks more life expentancy ?

 

Excellent post. Very informative! Thanks chrisyano.

 

Wish I'd read this beforehand. Not sure I've done any damage...

With my 9-Cell battery, charged overnight until 100%
Let it drain and the laptop shut itself off. ????? Good/Bad ??

Done this twice having thought I needed to set limits .... doh.

Have I done any harm to the battery & is there anyway to make the battery life better now that I've done this?

BTW it does still seem to last for approx 2.5hrs+

 

You can't over or undercharge your batt so relax no damage. You can actually undercharge but I am not going to tell you how. From now on follow the guide and don't worry.

 

Thanks for putting this guide together!

 

Don't throw your battery in a fire.
Don't stab your battery with a knife.
NEVER lick the metal connectors.

 

Why would I lick the metal connectors
Anyway, it is okay to put the battery into the compartment if you're doing extensive research or typing articles

 

Oh well, I have learn't the hard way...

I was used to advising people with sealed lead acid and NIMH charging principles.......Spot on, but LION is another animal altogether.

Alas, I always discharged my lappie's battery to shut down....

Now I need a new battery. Neither Sony or Acers fault - my own.

Great guide and thank's
Theo

(Repped also for teaching me a thing or two)

 

Hi there,
I have a problem with extended battery in my Tablet PC. When the battery goes to 0% (Windows XP SP2; Power Meter) I still can work with my Tablet for 25 minutes. It looks like the battery controller got problem. Is there any way to recalibrate the battery controller?
Thanks

 

as to what battery's future hold there's a fairly new technology coming out called carbon nanotubes when it gets developed it will both increases the battery's life and how much power they can store also it will probable bring out new components due to carbon nanotubes conductivity basically in the next few years battery's are going to become more than three times as good as they are currently are, (also they will be alot smaller allowing lighter laptops.) this will allow laptops and other portable devises to keep up with current power requirements of modern computer components. the future for batteries is gonna be interesting

 

sorry if this sounds retarded, but I'm still unsure about what full dischage means.

Is it like, forcing the laptop battery until it reaches warning level and forcing windows to enter standby mode? My laptop battery is either defective or need recalibrating, I'm still confused with these full discharging stuff. Is reducing battery till it's 3% considered as full dischage?

 

You are not "retarded" So now what is the question? Just a heads up, the use of the word "retard" is not considered acceptable anymore.

Edit: And yes you have run it down enough! Quit worrying! You are doing fine.

 

I see, thanks for the confirmation! I guess I could stop worrying now

 

Even after reading this guide, I still have a question.

I have a MB air (battery can not be taken out). When I am working on it, almost always a power outlet is available.

Do I use the poweroutlet as much as possible?
Or do I use it only to charge? and then run cycles to 10% and start charging it again?

Even Apple's guide is ambiguous about this: "Apple does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time." Not all the time, how often is that?
http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

 

Use the power outlet whenever available. If always available some say run it down all the way and completely recharge (full cycle) once a month. Does this help the batt? I have read yes but not sure, do know it helps with calibration.

 

Ah great to hear. It might be good to add this line to the original guide.

About the discharging once a month, Apple also recommends this. "Apple recommends charging and discharging its battery at least once per month."

 

I have really read all about this. I have read the guide, have read battery college, Apple also, Wikki and several others. Really no explanation for the 30 day full (deep) cycle other than calibration. They don't say when you store at 40% charge long term to cycle? So I think they just don't know of what they speak! I say unless you want calibration do not deep cycle. Then again with the lifetime of a Li-Ion batt once a month would not really have an affect on the total number of cycles (300 to 1,000?)!

 

This is very interesting!

If there really is not other reason to deep cycle I would prefer not to. This would basically mean to never go below 10%.

Anymore opinions on this?

 

really awesome guide. I just forwarded its link to all my friend.
I have a question though. In the guide, at some places its stated that font fully discharge the battery n at other places it says that to callibrate battery full discharge after 30 charge dykes should b done.
Please someone clarify.

 

OK gauravmarmat, think I understand, let me have a go. With Li-Ion unlike some other types, does not suffer from "memory effect" or any of the other shortcomings of old, those were. You needed to fully discharge and fully charge or your battery would lose capacity and die prematurely. With a Li-Ion not the case. So if you need to use your battery but don't fully discharge it is safe to recharge no matter how much charge it has. As a matter of fact if you use 10% no problem recharging. Also once you start to charge you don't have to fully charge, if for example you wanted to go somewhere. It is safe to stop charging at any point. As far as deep cycling goes I don't bother, I don't care about calibration. But if you do maybe a good idea. Won't really hurt just uses one of hundreds of cycles the battery has in it's lifetime.

 

Hi

I have bought a HP Pavilion dv4000 notebook.
But there is a problem with my battery (or notebook i don't know).
If i use the notebook on battery power, everything okay usually my battery works for 3 hours. But if i turn off my notebook my battery will go dead.
For example, i use my notebook for 1 hour and i turn off. 5-6 hours later i turn on, the battery ( 70% charged ) is dead. I cannot turn on because battery on 0.
But when i turn off and i get out the battery it keep the charging on.
I don't use suspend mode, always turn it off.
How it is possible?

In a HP service they say okay on their test my notebook give 100%.


sorry for my bad English

 

actually, if someone has bought laptop for the first time, s/he is suggested to do a full charge during 8 hours non stop. this could make the cell active and grow.
is it true? pls. i need clarify on this issue.

rgds,
eko

 

I would do as you said and yes that "stuck" cell grow. Do not know that it is necessary but well why not do?

 

Hello. Question:
Say I keep the notebook plugged in for days on end, just like a desktop. I leave the battery in.
What happens to the battery during that time?
1) Does it follow its natural discharge routine, and after it goes under 95% , the power comes in and recharges it? For how long? Over 100%?
2)Is there always power running through the battery, even though the lappie is running on AC?
3)I would really like to decide when my AC converter supplies power to the notebook , battery, or both.

 

I have question. I found a tool called smart battery that should extend your battery life by stopping the charging proccess at 50%. How would that extend the battery life, and will it at all?

 

For storage less capacity is lost when not fully charged. That is the theory behind this application.

Here is a chart from battery U

 

Aha so basically the concept is that when you power off your notebook the battery level would be 50% instead of 100%. I thought that there was a difference when on AC power, which was strange for me that a battery would last longer if charged 48-50% instead of 98-100%.

 

We are talking different kinds of last longer. Of course a 100% charge batt will run longer than a 50% charge.
What this is talking about is the life of the batt. They lose the ability to hold a charge overtime no matter what you do. Holding a partial charge appears to reduce this. Notice also heat is a critical factor.

 

You misunderstood me. When i said last longer i meant of the battery life. So i will ask again will the battery life increase if when on AC it is charged up to 50% instead of up to 100%?

 

Yes that is the theory.

 

I have 3 batteries for my hp dv6700t... I feel like such a gangsta . What is the difference if I keep it in the frige as opposed to my desk when I don't need it. I am only going to be using the two extra batteries only when I go on a trip which is roughly once a month or less. Thanks Ivan

 

sorry if this has been covered in the previous 20 pages, but what do people recommend for the first charge????? just charge to full on do a 14-16hour charge?

 

No recommendation on Li-Ion, do not suffer from memory effect. Some likely do what you said out of habit and won't hurt but not needed.

 

thanks powerpack

 

What do I do with my new battery for the first three charge cycles? I heard that it is a good idea that you fully charge your battery for a long time on the first charging and discharge it completely then charge it to 100% and discharge it again to 0% for another 2 cycle.....so that's three full charge-discharge cycles.....do u recommend this?

 

There is (almost) no advantage with LiIon batteries to doing that. Once they have been fully charged, the charger will stop. So, once the battery hits 100%, nothing happens. Also, unlike some other battery chemistries, LiIon does not need any preparation.

The "almost" is because there is circuitry battery to report the charge level of the battery. This can get out of sync and a full discharge/recharge cycle is recommended to reset this. Doing this with a new battery makes sense.

David