AC Power?... Please help...

"[Condition the battery once a month -] This will help the battery maintain maximum life. When running off the AC power unit, only leave the battery in the battery bay when it needs to be charged. Use the power sparingly."

I saved this statement a while ago and just today have paid real attention to it... I thought the computer wouldn't turn on unless the battery was inside the bay. So I gave running my FE21M a using the AC power without the battery - works perfectly. In the tray at the bottom right the power icon now says "On AC Power" when I hover, as opposed to the "100% (Charging)" it used to always say.

However, I have paid attention to this part in particular: "Use the power sparingly". So am I not supposed to run the computer off the AC unless I really have to?... or? I'm at university and this is my main computer here.

Could someone please tell me whether I'm supposed to constantly run the battery up and down, or just use AC power and condition my battery once every three weeks.

Any advice/experience very welcomed. What do you guys do personally? Looking forward to your replies.

 

I wouldn't worry about it too much. I run my computer with the battery in always. I did the same with my last laptop. It still had pretty decent battery life after 3 years of such use. Just keep the battery from extreme temperature changes (really hot, like in a car, or really cold, also like in a car), and you will prolong the life the most.

Just use AC power when it's useful, battery otherwise, basically. If you're near a wall socket, plug it in. And periodically condition it like they said, which usually consists of running the computer until the battery runs out, then letting it fully charge. I'd recommend using a Linux LiveCD for that, so you don't corrupt any files on your hard drive.

 

Thats the way I use my notebook too. You DONT have to keep the battery out of the notebook while its plugged in with AC... leave it in, it wont make much if any difference.

Personally I like to leave the battery in because if for some reason the AC adapter wire falls of or something the computer will swich to battery instead of just turning off completely.

 

I need to caveat this by saying that I have not seen the actual schematics nor have I taken an Ohm meeter to my computer and actually tested this, but this is what I have read. I am sure that this will start a flame session and through the ranting you can determin for yourself what you believe.

I used to remove my battery after it was fully charged to avoid leaving it plugged in. I would also run it all the way down periodically to "condition" it. This is not required today with new computers and modern LiOn batteries. Supposedly your computer is now smart enough to determin whether or not the battery is charged and it actually stops charging a charged battery. It is not like the old laptops where current flowed into the battery and then the battery always was the actual power source to the laptop. Now there is a circuit which checks status of the battery and if it is full, power from your DC converter is directed to the computer. That is the explanation I read as to why the recharging light stops blinking when the battery is charged even if the computer is still plugged in and running. If you buy this argument, then it is not required to remove the fully charged battery to protect it. Furthermore LiOn batteries do not need to be conditioned so there is no need to fully charge and then run to exhaustion before recharging. There is no battery memory. So with all of this said, you should be good to leave your battery in according to Sony.

Having said all of this. I have read in an airport or two that it is suggested that when you plug into aircraft power, that you remove your battery. There was no explanation provided for this and they may have been responding to a wives tale. I run an external APC battery on aircraft and have never had a problem. (By the way, the APC external does develope a memory and needs to be run dry and then recharged in order to take a maximum charge. This is easy to demonstrate with the LED indicators which show the status of the internal cells.)

Let the flaming begin.

 

The reason why I take out my battery when plugged in is because my laptop gets very hot when being used heavily(ie gaming). The area near the battery gets especially hot, which I believe is not good for the battery.

 

Past computers I've owned have given the "100% Charging" message when plugged in with the battery inserting --- my SZ just says "On AC power" with no indication that power is flowing to the battery once the charge reaches 100%. Whether or not that is true is another matter --- but it's nice to see.

From what I gather, a previous poster was right -- Li-ion batteries do not require the conditioning/flexing/whatever that older batteries did. Li-ion batteries do not suffer from memory loss and discharge much slower, among other things. So far I've just left my battery in my lappy at all times.

 

Interesting responses, thanks all. After reading I now notice that when "100% (Charging)" there is no battery light, and then as soon as I unplug the AC the light flashes up... so it probably is the same as "On AC Power" just with the battery also plugged in.

Thanks a lot once again, very helpful.

 

Hi on my compaq nx5000 notebook, when using the AC power adaptor the notebook is working fine when I take the ac adaptor out while the notebook is ON and running with the battery, the notebook is STILL running but the icon on the right hand coner is showing AC Power while running from battery (it does not see the battery), when shutting down and startup with the battery the notebook do not startup
Can any body HELP PLEASE!!