Remove battery when not in use?

oops, i already started over and drained it again, now i am charging it.

what now o.0

 

Don't worry, just charge and use as you need. Today's laptop batteries don't have memory effect like ones 10-15 years ago had.

Batteries will still die some day, that you can't escape

 

As you guys told 40% charged battery has less deterioration than a fully charged battery. So is there any option in the laptops to charge upto only 40% and start working with AC without removing the battery out? I heard Vaios have a battery care function while controls the battery to not getting fully charged/ . i.e Not 100%. Is this possible? If this is possible, that 40% charged battery will give the backup and we can have better battery lifes provided we take it out while playing games. Is this feasible?

 

Agree. Why do people waste time on this is beyond me.

The battery on my xps m1330 is still as good (or rather as bad) as new. It holds for 2-2.5 hrs max.

 

Most laptops do not have this function (only one I know that can do this automatically are ThinkPads X/T/W series). I never really care to charge to 40% unless I'm not going to use my battery for a few weeks or longer, which never happens. I use my battery fairly often, so I just charge to 100% and drain until 10-20%. So far I have minimal change in battery life over 2 years - still getting 4-5 hours as I first did when I got the battery.

 

Wow.

So much fussing over the life of a battery. ALL the points mentioned above could, at best, extend the batteries service life by a few months; i.e. a 40% reduced run-time will occur a few months later.

Stop fretting! Just use your computer and stop charging the battery up and down to a specific percentage, each month, taking it out and sticking it in the fridge (??)

Laptop batteries are a fantastic UPS, don't forget that. What's a new battery, £60/$100? I'd HAPPILY pay that to avoid repairing a corrupt MFT on a drive when the power was pulled mid-write.

$100 for three years usage is great mileage. Use them, buy a new one when you need it.

My girlfriend does NOTHING special on her MacBook (often using it on battery or AC quite randomly ..) and the lifespan on that has barely dropped from new (2 years and counting).

Modern batteries are good tech; 75% of all this b**l**ks posted here is what I like to call "old husband's tales" and is that old knowledge passed from father to son, often in need of an update

 

Yep, I agree

 

I found a related article about this topic while browsing around the net..

Source: Jagat Review | Laptop Batteries: Plugged or Unplugged?

 

"Li-Ion cells cant stand heat"

so of coarse they get used in a laptop

When a replacement battery pack costs 1/4th as much as the laptop cost when new, something is not quite right

kind of like when Qwest charges renters for service calls to fix wiring in the apartment walls

 

i heard a theory from a technician that use laptop without plug in battery would degrade or even spoil the laptop power adaptor, what do u think about this theory?

 

Mine was 35$ with free shipping from china... Not HP original but keeps my tc4400 running for 3 hours.

 

Even the best practical theory is not always the most correct theory

 

the way i see it is i just spent $1600 on a new laptop. if the worst thing i have to do to it 2 years from now is dump $100 bucks in a battery than i'll be a happy man.

seems like to much work to put the battery in and out all the time to extend the life of it say a few months. i also like the idea of having it in if i lose power, this thing is eventually going to be a desktop replacement with a built in UPS! works for me

 

Never taken mine out. I often accidentally dislodge the power cable enough for it to stop powering it. No battery = no backup.

 

im not really sure with this either.

I have an old laptop [VAIO 2006 model]
that's been plugged in with batt every single day for 2 months and a year after, lol, it can run 20-30 mins the most unplugged.

But i guess i'll use it plugged w/ batt again on my new laptop, as like many people said. Its nice to have a back up power in case of a power shortage and batteries are always replaceable.

 

I used to be like alot of people, pulling my battery out when it was fully charged and if i was staying in one place with the laptop plugged in. But then my gf got a macbook pro, and she just cycles that battery 2 or 3 times a day, she is a heavy user, so she plugs it in when it gets to 10 percent and charges it fully, and unplugs it at 100 percent, she also uses the laptop constantly, and plays games on it, an that thing gets hot, after a year and half she only has 8 percent full capacity lost.

Then I bought a Thinkpad Edge E420 and ask Lenovo what their official policy was on the battery, they said leaving it plugged in all day was fine, and if you look at their battery program, when the laptop is fully charged and plugged in, their is no activity in their program, so that is good enough for me, like some people have said, who cares, if I have to but a new battery in two years, great, I'll just get the 9 cell.

 

Is there a difference in battery degradation between Li Ion and Lithium Polymer batteries. Was just browsing and started reading this thread. Unfortunately for me my Laptop is plugged in most of the time and most of the time the laptop gets hot since I am either gaming or doing CPU Intensive tasks. Apparently Macs cant operate without the battery.

 

Don't store the batt fully charged, that will kill it faster than leaving it in your laptop...


It should be stored between 60-80% capacity

 

If you store it for more than a few weeks, it would be better to preserve the battery in a ziplock bag with drying agents in the fridge at around 40% charge.

 

I here putting leaches on your forehead cure the flu too...

 

I never remove my battery. Waste of time imho

 

Hi,

I'm relatively new to this and the battery is my first concern. I will be purchasing my first PC notebook very soon and I was wondering a few things. I apologize if a couple of them are subjective, but I hope that they are pretty straight forward.

I suppose the first would be, does this idea of removing the battery when the notebook is plugged into the wall still hold up with modern Li-Ion notebook batteries in terms of prolonging it? How practical is this method? My notebook will be on a desk most of the time near an outlet, so does that mean I have the option to not use the battery at all?

My understanding was that when it is plugged in, it is running off of the battery in a "charging/charged state." This isn't the case, I am guessing? I thought that the battery acted as the power supply, even in the case of it being plugged in?

When "discharging" the battery, does that simply mean that I run it down to 0% charge, and the computer will put itself into sleep mode or shut down? I read in the Notebook Battery Guide that I should do this sort of calibration about every 30 cycles, so I just want to make sure that I understand correctly. Afterwards, I just charge it back up (can I use it during the charging period?) and the calibration process is completed?

Thanks everyone.

 

@ Hemi - SPot on , what is a replacement about $75.00 US
US PA guys think alike!
I suppose the first would be, does this idea of removing the battery when the notebook is plugged into the wall still hold up with modern Li-Ion notebook batteries in terms of prolonging it? How practical is this method? My notebook will be on a desk most of the time near an outlet, so does that mean I have the option to not use the battery at all?

I know I read of one model/brand that needed the battery in but I know I can run my ASUS sans battery.

My understanding was that when it is plugged in, it is running off of the battery in a "charging/charged state." This isn't the case, I am guessing? I thought that the battery acted as the power supply, even in the case of it being plugged in?

As stated Asus does not work that way, it can run on AC only

When "discharging" the battery, does that simply mean that I run it down to 0% charge, and the computer will put itself into sleep mode or shut down? I read in the Notebook Battery Guide that I should do this sort of calibration about every 30 cycles, so I just want to make sure that I understand correctly. Afterwards, I just charge it back up (can I use it during the charging period?) and the calibration process is completed?

Calibration means, turn off sleep, hibernate, etc and allow battery to go to zero. IMO better designed machine have a BIOS tool to do this, I do not like the idea of windows not shutting down properly. During calibration I do not turn it on, just plug in and wait at least 2 hours (or till 100% charge)

 

Hm, so I suppose it runs off the AC Adaptor (the brick portion) when the battery is not in?

 

It would help to know what Brand/Model we are talking about, but I will go out on a limb and say most.. will work fine on AC - The adapter is converting AC to DC power.

 

No brand or model specifically, just a general question really. Thanks for the information.

 

just use the laptop and don't worry about the battery. it's meant to be used in the laptop at all times, plugged or unplugged. how much of the battery's life do you guys expect to save by taking it out, 40%ing it, refridgerating it, and all that other nonsense? 5% of the battery life over several years? what's that, like 7-10 minutes extra use time on a 2.5 hour battery life? lol

 

Ok obviously you can take out the battery and just run the laptop from the power cord.

THe cool thing about my thinkpad is that the Thinkvantage Battery Software tells me that there is no activity with the battery when it is fully charged and the power cord is plugged in, so this is conformation at least for Thinkpads, if the battery is fully charged and the power cord is attached, the battery is bypassed and the laptop is running off of the power cord only.

 

What about the power adaptor?

I notice it's lit up 24/7, should that be left unplugged when not in use, or just keep it plugged in and connect it to the notebook when necessary?

 

Leave the power adapter unplugged if it is not charging the battery on the laptop, or directly running the laptop with the battery removed. This way you don't waste power lighting up the power adapters LED 24/7.

 

^^^ Thomas is correct, I have mine plugged into Belkin power strip, and switch off the power strip when not in use. If I know electrical storms are in my area then I unplug the strip.

 

Okay.

I left the actual plug in (power cable), but the power brick (I suppose that's what it's called) is unplugged, and I will just plug in the power cable and then when I need to charge up.

Thanks guys, I left that LED on for like two days. o.o

 

I like to leave mine in. The power goes out fairly often, and it is nice to have some insurance aka backup power.

 

Hi mate,
It's true that if you want to maximize your battery's life you'd better unplug it, however, make sure that if you unplug it, charge it to a ~40% of it's capacity and then store in a cool place.
BTW - if you want other battery tips, here are some nice ones:
Laptop battery tips

 

i only plug mine while gaming, other than that when office document encoding or internet surfing, its usually on battery with battery saving/switchable graphics.

 

There's no need to remove the battery from a notebook when it's not in use. It might have been true in the 90s, but I know of notebook batteries that are a decade old and still maintain a useful charge. Batteries do have a finite number of charging cycles, and a notebook that goes through multiple charging cycles will have a much shorter battery life than a notebook that's most hooked up to AC power. It depends on your pattern of use.

It goes without saying that the trend is towards integrated batteries, almost all of which are replaceable, albeit with the removal of screws.

So, the easy answer is not to remove your battery. It's not worth the effort. It actually might be detrimental to the life of the coin-cell/BIOS/clock time/CMOS battery on the motherboard, which may or may not be easily replaceable.

It's high time to discard dated advice.

 

Getting my HP Folio 13 today and have a question regarding first time use.

The Folio 13 comes with a non-removable battery (except for when replacing it) and I am curious if I should just plug it in to charge the battery when I first get it or should I start it up and let it run down to the "Plug AC in" message before actually plugging it in and letting it charge up?

 

^^^ I have always plugged in immediately, and let it fully charge. Then I use it on battery (down to ~10%) just to verify that it is working properly.
Nice Folio !

 

Thank you JOSEA for the information.

Will do what you recommended.

Very excited to get the Folio after work today.

Sent from my DROIDX

 

Isn't it best to not have the battery plugged it in while gaming due to the excessive heat on the battery? I read on the guide that heat is the enemy

 

12beavah - good point, but most gaming machines today have great cooling
Here is a great printer on Li-ION batterys
How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries - Battery University

@PNUT M&M Note I only do that on initial power on. (But I have removable battery)

 

I don't take the battery out of my VAIO, it doesn't trickle charge when the battery is at 100%. It's plugged in most of the time too with two years and virtually no signs of deterioration (yet).

 

You need to recalibrate since if you keep your battery at 100% on your laptop just by the physics of lithium ions, I guarantee there is noticeable deterioration in 2 years. There is minimal deterioration at 40% and at lower temperature (just above dew point).

 

Oh yes, I do it once or twice a month. Other than that, it has served as a great UPS for my clumsy self; always disconnecting the plug, etc..

 

I have been keeping my Envy 6 cells battery + 9 cells add-on slice for 2 years with 1~2% charge loss. Charge to 30% every month and drain at the end and keep redoing it. Quite a nice thing

 

See here for good info on batteries and proper discharge / calibration procedures:

BatteryCare - Proper laptop battery usage guide

 

i need to check this out i've never given any thought to it i just try and not let it run completely out while gaming...that didn't seem to have any positives associated with it...

 

it will break.

 

Why can't anyone build laptops with a tiny battery built in that will last for like 5 minutes in the case of a blackout that will give you enough time to either shutdown or put in the real battery.

 

Because you don't need to remove the battery that's already there.

And if you think you need to remove it, then the other battery would be subject to the same issues as the bigger battery that you removed in the first place.