Sleep, vs Shut Down, Plugged in vs Non-plugged in what's the best for machine/battery care?

Wasn't sure where to post this, but since there are so many knowledgable folks in these forums I'd figure I'd post this here You've all proven to be great help in the past so here goes.

I've been surfing around the internet reading conflicting opinions on whether its better for the laptop/battery to simply be left in sleep mode (With the lid down) vs Shutting it down.

As well as healthiness of the battery, some argue its better to work the battery out and others are fine with leaving it plugged in all the time.

So NBR my question is what's the best way to prolong battery life and general laptop health concerning these?

 

Batteries improve and the old technique with draining the battery and then letting it load may actually tear on it..

I would suggest shutting down and turning on, especially if you've got a SSD.

Some even set the laptop to do nothing when closing the lid as it seems easier.

 

Fully draining the battery is an old technique that worked on old nickel based batteries. For lithium batteries it only accelerates wear, as all lithium batteries by law have to carry a chip that will turn off current supply when battery reaches a certain level of charge.

 

I have an ssd!

 

I always leave my batteries never took it out. My laptop is 3.5 years old m860tu my batteries are still almost the same.

Most of the times i shut down my laptop but when i am in a hurry i just leave my laptop in hibernation mode.

 

strange as my m860tu battery lasted 11 months as i left it connected. wear went down to about 22%
battery replaced and when i know i wont be using it for l;ong periods of time i remove it with roughly 40% charge and after 3 years it still has a 98% charge rate.

 

the biggest killer of your battery now is heat, plain and simple. If you have a notebook cooler its great, but if you don't, I'd pull it when not using it. LI batteries are very prone to heat damage.

About once every 6-9months you should drain your battery, not for improvement but to calibrate the software, your battery degrades over time, that;s just the way it is, but your software needs to update and calibrate it self. Best way to run a battery down is to adjust hibernation and just let laptop go into sleep mode so it only hibernates when battery is about to die. then charge it back up while system is running. Its not important, but it will mean the battery life indicator will be more accurate as well as the time left on battery power.

 

Given that you do have an SSD, it would probably be better to just shutdown your laptop.

The original intention of the sleep mode was for faster boot up times if the laptop had a standard hard drive. With the introduction of the SSD, it kind of made the sleep mode a moot thing.
There are also some Solid-State drives that will still have occasional issues waking from sleep mode and will still require a hard shutdown and reboot to get it to wake back up...if you want to call it that.

As far as leaving the laptop plugged in with the battery in it, well I have a five year old laptop that I've abused a bit keeping it plugged in while playing games and running on the battery with power saver in classes and the battery still works fine.
Heat is the main enemy of any electronic device though, so keeping it cool will certainly help out the battery and the laptop.

 

Heihachi_1337 has it going on listen to him!

A well told explanation, respect.

 

People stress over battery life way too much. I have never replaced a single battery in a laptop. Some I have had for several years.

 

I suppose it depends on your needs. Although lithium batteries do not have the memory effect of other battery types, the lithium ones do lose capacity over time. On my old Gateway laptop (5 years), I would guess that my battery life is ~70% of its original length, and I just had to replace a two-year-old cell phone battery because it was dying after 4 hours of moderate use.

From the scraps I have cobbled together, a good trade-off is charging your battery at 40-50%. It allows for more cycles and does not require you to be neurotic about charging. Of course, high-end laptops with ~2 hours of battery life may be problematic. Better to remove the battery and plug it in to save the battery. Storage at 40% and cool temps is often recommended.

 

It really is a sort of luck of the draw on getting a good battery. Most people will never have issues with their battery throughout the lifetime of their laptop.

Others have had to replace their battery within 6 months to a year of getting their laptops. These cases are rare, but they do happen.

 

I'd rather leave the battery in while on ac power since it can act as an ups. They are meant to be used. Just make sure they don't get overheated.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

 

I still wish they made a plastic cover to take the place of the battery for those of us who use the laptop plugged in all the time.

 

I'd my last notebook for 5 years, it was plugged in most of the time with the battery inside it, and the battery was still in great shape after 5 years, in fact the notebook broke before the battery even began to become a problem...

 

Seconded. Since I actually use my 170EM on my lap, while on the couch, the frequency with wich the powercord gets popped out, would drive me nuts if it powered down each time.