battery question

I heard that unplugging and plugging in powercord can hurt the battery, is there anyway to take good care of it? Should i plug it in all the time? Or what? Because i do occasionally move my laptop around.

 

I don't see why unplugging / plugging in your power converter would cause an issue with your battery. They have built in mechanisms to limit how much they charge and batteries are pretty good about keeping these levels nowadays.

The days of battery "memory" have long passed.

 

i think he means unplugging it for a few minutes, and then plugging it back in.

 

No, it won't cause any problems. The biggest threat to lithium batteries is heat, so as long as you don't leave them in your car or otherwise subject them to high temps- regular usage is what they're designed for.

 

Leaving the power cord connected while the battery is fully charged can reduce the life of the battery due to the heat generated.

Generally, if you're not using the laptop in a mobile manner, you can unplug the battery and use AC only to extend the life of your battery to the max.

 

Yes, thats about it. And i heard if the powercord is plugged in for a long time and that if you unplug it, running on the battery, the battery life is a lot lower(run low fast) than normal?

 

So does that mean i should unplug the cord once it is charged. and charge it again once it is back to like 50 %?

 

I'd suspect its best to let it charge while the laptop isn't in use.

Really, the difference is probably months and by the time a battery starts to go bad for me, I'm looking at upgrading anyway

 

Something like that. I don't know that you'll see a drastic reduction in battery life, more like a slow reduction in capacity. There's a battery FAQ somewhere here, but I can't find it. I did find a bunch of threads on batteries, though:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/not...l-keeping-my-laptop-plugged-hurt-battery.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...-should-i-leave-my-battery-while-plugged.html
http://forum.notebookreview.com/har.../62436-bad-leave-laptop-plugged-all-time.html

This last one is from Apple, but the advice applies to all lithium batteries:
Apple - Batteries - Notebooks

 

Thanks, i just ran through those posts you sent. and i think i also found the guide you mentioned http://forum.notebookreview.com/har...et-upgrades/91846-notebook-battery-guide.html

If i read it correctly, he said i should remove the battery at its 40% and have the laptop plugged in? And i recharge it at 10-20%.

"Calibrate your battery’s fuel gauge by doing a full discharge every 30 cycles. Run the battery to the cut-off point in your notebook to keep the battery’s fuel gauge accurate." What does this mean and what is the 30 cycles?

 

30 charge/discharge cycles.

 

Lol, with batteries made the way they're made nowadays, you really don't need to do that.

 

Maybe not, but it can't hurt.

 

Have fun wasting your time doing that. Batteries are made much better nowadays (just posted this somewhere else), which means all the maintenance you read about is unnecessary.

 

How long does it take you to unplug your laptop?

I'll answer your unsupported, anecdotal claim with an observation of mine: I get better battery life on my T61 and dv6 when I unplug them when full, and plugging them in when drained - about 2.5 hours on my 9-cell T61 and 40 minutes or so with the 6 cell dv6.

I expect the same from the 8150.

 

Here we go again. This subject seems to come up frequently (or a variation of it) and for some strange reason people have very strong feelings on it. IMO people spend way too much time worrying about the battery. Use it as you see fit. It'll probably last the same amount of time. Enjoy your laptop and forget about the battery.

 

I totally admit I've descended a couple of levels on the chart here in relationship to this topic: Comic Flowchart on How To Deal With Internet Arguments
But I'm totally gonna win!

 

This is actually true, a battery in one of my laptops actually died because I never unplugged it. It only holds 5% charge now.

 

What kind of laptop/battery was it? Could the so say "newer generation" battery be better like some other people said?

 

It was an ASUS W1N laptop. It's a pretty old laptop. But the battery hasn't worked for a while.