What do you do? (question about charging)

I was wondering, is it better to use AC power if available or does keeping your laptop plugged into the wall harm the battery life in some way? Also when you are using your battery how low do you let your batter go before plugging it in? Does it matter?

Normally I use the battery when using my laptop and usually shut down (or put in hibernate) the computer when the battery gets low (around 15 to 25%) is this good/bad or does it even matter? I remember hearing that it used to be bad to keep your laptop plugged into AC power as it kills the battery but maybe that was a myth or maybe it was only true with older laptops.

Any opinions?

 

i had done some research on this topic but cudnt come up with a definite answer.. one point i read is that the battery will lose its ability to keep the charge if u recharge it frequently.. but m not sure keeping it on AC will nullify that..

another thing u can do is to remove ur battery while working on AC.. that way u can atleast protect it from heat.. but whatever u do, the battery wil lose a minimum of 20% of its charge YoY.. its the curse of Li-ion cells..

 

go through the battery guide in NBR... exhaustive research on battery maintenance..

 

Interesting. I was unaware you could run without a battery installed. I assume this is something you remove when the system is OFF and unplugged from AC power.

I guess in the end, whatever happens happens. But thanks for the info.

 

Does it really matter if you remove it while you're plugged?

 

According to the link frozen_sun posted keeping your battery connected while plugged into AC will lessen the batteries life due to the heat generated by the computer. It seems like a sound idea as it is well known that batteries do not like heat. However as the link points out, running without a battery has its own set of problems (i.e. if the power goes out you lose everything like you would on your desktop without a UPS).

That and I assume you have to have the computer completely off when you disconnect or reconnect the battery (although I am not sure).

 

even i had the wired urge to remove the battery while using the system.. but thought better of it..what i do is to remove the battery while the system is off and unplugged.. work.. then put it back when the system is off.. but once in a while i use it on battery.. lest the battery forgets its function!!

 

Keep taking the battery on and off while using power and risk breaking off the locking system/battery latch for the battery, I will opt on the safe side and keep my battery on and when it has run its useful lifetime use then I will buy another. I've read about people on here having their battery latch breaking off and I would rather minimize that from happening to me. Just my opinion...