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dual batt on 8890?

post #1 of 20
10/2/03 at 7:05am
Thread Starter 
I am very interested in these laptops, and am wondering if the 8890 can support a dual battery setup, or if this will be available in the future, etc...

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post #2 of 20
10/2/03 at 8:08am
No bob. Unfortunately only the 5680 has a dual battery setup. The 8890 is designed more to be tied to a power outlet.
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post #3 of 20
10/13/03 at 4:15pm
Are the batteries easily swapped out of a 8890 for a fresh one? Or should I just hold off until a PowerPad of some sort is made compatible?

And now…The sacrifice of the nanas

Oh yea-pixilated gods, deliver unto me a sweet LCD with no bad pixels. Amen.







Must sacrifice the evil nanas to appease the laptop gods….
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post #4 of 20
10/13/03 at 4:33pm
no the batts cannot be swapped out fast...screws etc...pain in the arse...

ac is your best friend as far as the 8890 is concerned
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post #5 of 20
10/13/03 at 5:17pm
Hey, I did get nearly three hours off battery will all possible battery conservation techniques used... It's not THAT tied down.

I suppose it may be possible to use velcro or something to attach the battery instead of screws. Even without the screws, the battery is pretty well seated up in the socket, so I bet a bit of velcro just may do the trick, if you get two main batteries.

The big disadvantage with having two main batteries is that you can't have the system on while you swap the battery...
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post #6 of 20
10/13/03 at 5:52pm
What battery conservation techniques did you use to get almost 3 hours off the battery (assume it wasn't hibernation )?
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post #7 of 20
10/13/03 at 6:30pm
Lowest LCD brightness, no audio, word processing only. Hey, it was a lecture, why would I need the LCD/audio to be at full blast? Granted, I didn't actually time it all the way to the end of the 3 hours. By the end of my 90 min lecture, I had 52% battery. Assuming that meter is right, I'd had about another 90 min left.

However, on heavy duty gaming with audio all the way up and screen brightness as maximum while playing a proc-intensive game, it lasts about an hour... But that's not all that amazing, since those games aren't meant to be played while you're moving around...
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post #8 of 20
10/13/03 at 7:00pm
Is it possible to yank the battery and just run it off AC? I would like to save the battery for when I actually need it. I have found that continuously charging, or at least charging every day without discharging leads to early death or vastly reduced battery times.

Thanks
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post #9 of 20
10/13/03 at 7:27pm
when the laptop is ON and you are connected to ac the batteries barely trickle charge...my 5660 batteries almost never charged...they used to charge only when the Laptop was off...

I dont think you need to yank out the battery to prolong its life...just turn off ac when the laptop is off and the battery is fully charged...simple...
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post #10 of 20
10/13/03 at 8:23pm
Quote:
Originally posted by gsferrari
when the laptop is ON and you are connected to ac the batteries barely trickle charge...my 5660 batteries almost never charged...they used to charge only when the Laptop was off...

I dont think you need to yank out the battery to prolong its life...just turn off ac when the laptop is off and the battery is fully charged...simple...
HEAT is the number 1 enemy of a battery.

BTW, if the battery is TRICKLE CHARGING, something is not right/bad design.

I've said it before, Lithium Ion batteries have negligible self discharge!!
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post #11 of 20
10/13/03 at 9:04pm
Well, it trickle charges because the laptop itself is using most of the juice from the AC. The adapter can't put out enough electricity to run the laptop, and charge the battery at once.
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post #12 of 20
10/13/03 at 9:09pm
Quote:
Originally posted by gsferrari
no the batts cannot be swapped out fast...screws etc...pain in the arse...

ac is your best friend as far as the 8890 is concerned
What would be interesting is if they made a small hotswappable battery that fills that MP3 player slot. That would be pretty bad ass. Just enough battery to give you 30-60 minutes. That would be a pretty slick addition to the next model.
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post #13 of 20
10/13/03 at 10:22pm
I know that after a year or so of keeping the Lithium Ion battery in my dell it went from a 2 hour battery to a 20 min battery. I advise preople at work to yank theirs when they plug in. Of course that is with an easily removable battery too.

We are allowed to use our laptops at work, when not actually working. Most everyone plays Civ3. (due to poor laptop speed)
So we are plugged in daily, when the batteries are removed they last way longer.

I guess when you have to unscrew the battery that might change things, but my previous laptops had batteries that slid in and out while the machine was running. I guess you have to make compromises when your dealing with this heavy duty type laptop. I can live with that, but what if I don't ever put the battery in. Is the 8890 gonna be happy with that?
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post #14 of 20
10/14/03 at 12:26am
Quote:
Originally posted by JeffL
HEAT is the number 1 enemy of a battery.

BTW, if the battery is TRICKLE CHARGING, something is not right/bad design.

I've said it before, Lithium Ion batteries have negligible self discharge!!
What I meant was that if you have used up your battery and are trying to charge it when you are using the laptop - you will get almost no charge even after a few hours of usage.

And self discharge is always there as long as the battery is in the circuit and there are lossey components connected to the terminals. Isolate the battery if you dont wanna lose charge over time...
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post #15 of 20
12/11/03 at 2:31am
I recently have compiled acpi into my 2.4.22 kernel and now have more questions about my lappy than ever before. first off it is a NP5660 (sager specifically) using the acpi stuff (and having looked at my battery) i see that it is rated at 4Ah (for those that dont do math 4000 mAh), however, when looking at my /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info i get this...
present: yes
design capacity: 4000 mAh
last full capacity: 2684 mAh
battery technology: rechargeable
design voltage: 14800 mV
design capacity warning: 0 mAh
design capacity low: 0 mAh
capacity granularity 1: 64 mAh
capacity granularity 2: 64 mAh
model number: BAT1
serial number: 0001
battery type: LION
OEM info: NOTEBOOK


why am i short 1316 mAh?
does anyone else have this? is there some way to fully discharge the battery and recharge it from scratch... i did not think that LION batteries had this significant amount of memory.

thanks.
------
oh yeah, and redhat9's (i dont know if it comes on other distro's) 'BATTERY CHARGE MONITOR' says that it is at 100% power...
and one more question... how does battery charge monitor work? why did it work with APM then immediately with ACPI with no modifications?
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post #16 of 20
12/11/03 at 3:17am
Is the battery you measured the battery that came with your laptop? I assume that you have had your system for a while (being a Sager 5660). If it is the original battery you will find that all batteries irrespective of chemistry only have a certain lifespan (normally less than 2 years). What you may be finding is that your battery is just getting old.
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post #17 of 20
12/11/03 at 4:03am

worried over power loss?

Quote:
Originally Posted by hkancyr
Is it possible to yank the battery and just run it off AC? I would like to save the battery for when I actually need it. I have found that continuously charging, or at least charging every day without discharging leads to early death or vastly reduced battery times.

Thanks
Your battery and/or power adapter are going to quit on you - some day!

Batteries last 2-4 years and power adapters are clumsy bricks thet get kicked under tables all the time so: make sure you get a spare battery and a spare power brick as well.
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post #18 of 20
12/11/03 at 4:46am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hkancyr
I know that after a year or so of keeping the Lithium Ion battery in my dell it went from a 2 hour battery to a 20 min battery. I advise preople at work to yank theirs when they plug in. Of course that is with an easily removable battery too. ...
In the 88XX Sager Models the battery has one of the feet attached to it besides the 4 screws. So when you remove the battery something has to replace it like another battery. The 56XX Sager Models battery may be easy to remove but then again, one of the feet is attached to the battery. So unless Sager or Clevo makes a cover without the battery, it is not practical to remove the battery and leave an empty hole.
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post #19 of 20
12/11/03 at 10:08am
Quote:
Originally Posted by hkancyr
I advise preople at work to yank theirs when they plug in. Of course that is with an easily removable battery too.
One important benifit of a laptop is that it has a built in UPS, i.e. the battery. Most hard drive damage is caused by rapid power flucuations such as those caused during a thunderstorm when the power grid grounds out due to a lightning hit. Removing the battery is like buying a UPS for your desktop and then plugging your computer into the wall socket.

If you are worried about battery life, why not just power cycle your battery once a week?
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post #20 of 20
12/11/03 at 3:07pm
To cycle your battery, the best way is to run some processor-intensive application (DVD, games, etc.) off of battery until you hit ~5% or so, then reboot and head into the BIOS to drain the rest. This will completely discharge it; Windows has a built-in function to shut down before fully discharging it. Afterwards, charge it to full with the power off. Unfortunately, this procedure means you won't be using your laptop for a few hours.

As for memory effect and the utility of cycling batteries, you'll get arguments from all sides, so I'm not going to comment on that.
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