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battery, to plug in or not

post #1 of 14
6/25/06 at 5:27pm
Thread Starter 
Is it bad to keep your laptop plugged in all the time and pretty much only run it from the power outlet. Shoudl you let it run from just the battery once in a while? i was jsut thinking maybe its bad for the battery to just sit there.
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post #2 of 14
6/25/06 at 9:07pm
yea thats wot i do, most of the time, its plugged, cos i leave my laptop downatisrs, but sumtimes, wen i muck aorund on desktop downatisrs,i bring my laptop down too, jsut to also discharge the battery...
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post #3 of 14
6/26/06 at 12:00am
tehere r tausands f trheads about dat alreday. uz dah search function.

j/k
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post #4 of 14
6/26/06 at 12:25am
funny thing is, after I've had my Dell laptop for about 2 years (after the warranty was up), a friendly Dell technician called and asked me if I'd wanted a new battery for the laptop, and also told me if I take out the battery when the laptop is plugged into the outlet, it'll extend the battery life. I don't know about you guys, but I'd think it'd be much more helpful if he told me that at the beginning, when I've just purchased the laptop lol.
Anyways, yes, I'd recommend taking out the battery from the laptop, once its done charging, if you plan on using the laptop while plugged into the outlet.
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post #5 of 14
6/26/06 at 12:33am
i never did that with my notebook (taking the battery out) and the battery still is doing well. nothing like 2 yrs ago, but still...

heat can damage your battery over time, but if you balance the benefits (or even better: lack of loss) of having it plugged in when an outage comes i think i'm doing the right thing.
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post #6 of 14
6/26/06 at 12:40am
I've had a 12" PowerBook since Sep 04, don't unplug it often and never take the battery out. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've never had any battery problems.

When the machine is used unplugged and is then recharged, the charge still goes to 99% and lasts about 3.5 hours running on battery only.
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post #7 of 14
6/26/06 at 1:24am
Even though I bought a used laptop, battery usage has been strong. But then again, I don't know how to operate the computer w/out the batteries because they go in the area where my wrists rests while I type and I don't want to use an external keyboard/mouse.
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post #8 of 14
6/26/06 at 1:48am
Heat kills LiOn batteries. So does deep discharge (enough of them). So, if your laptop is mostly a DTR (desktop replacement) and it doesn't get very hot most of the time, leave it in. That's my take on it, anyway. And that's what I do (1 year now, still listed at 100%).
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post #9 of 14
6/26/06 at 10:21am
I never take the battery out while on ac power on any of my laptops. I think my oldest laptop is about 5 years old. Shoot, I’ve never even had to replace a battery *knocks on wood*. I do like to do a complete cycle of the battery every now and then, though.
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post #10 of 14
6/26/06 at 10:43am
" When using a laptop as a desktop replacement the battery should not be left in for long periods of time. The laptop will over time discharge the battery. Remove the battery – making sure that it is charged to 40% and store it in a dry, warm place. Ensure that it is wrapped protectively and nothing will be dropped on it.

The battery should be re-installed every 3-4 weeks and allowed to fully discharge. Leaving a battery in storage for longer than this without using could cause the battery to fully discharge as the circuitry of the battery itself consumes power.

Leaving a battery in a laptop while using an electrical outlet for long periods of time will keep the battery in a constant state of charging up and that will reduce the life cycle of the battery.

Remember that when you have removed the battery from a laptop while using with an electrical outlet – the automatic battery backup is no longer functional. Make sure to plug your laptop into an uninterrupted power source (UPS) not directly into an outlet or surge protector."

full read at http://mobileoffice.about.com/od/usi...topbattery.htm

cheers ...
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post #11 of 14
6/27/06 at 4:41pm
no, the battery will stop charging when it's full.

advantage to leaving it in is when the power goes out.
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post #12 of 14
6/27/06 at 8:21pm
first of all, windows can still say "100" but it will not be "100" it measures it off the new potential full. my battery although always shows up as '100" is actually about 80% (used some obscure linux comand to check that out) and i can see that, it used to last a hair under 2 hours , and now i am lucky if i pull off 100 minutes.

i had to replace the battery in my Thinkpad (circa 2002) because the old one was 100% DEAD. The new one been using for about a year now...just about every day, and its great, when it was brand new the laptop easily got 2.5-3 hours whereabouts, now its about 2:30, no more.
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post #13 of 14
6/27/06 at 9:46pm
After 1 year now, I still get ~3.5 hours battery run time. I don't pull the battery out, usually.
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post #14 of 14
6/28/06 at 12:40am
I think that since the battery stops charging when it reaches capacity, the only danger is the heat from the computer.
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