Looking after my Netbook battery.

Greenman

Hello,
After lots of lurking I ordered a Samsung NC 10. What is the best way to look after the battery? How low should you go till you charge etc?
All tips welcome.

Voodu Child

The major factor that degrades li-ion batteries is use.

They have a set number of charge cycles in them, and as they reach high-numbers of cycles (typically 300-500), there's a very noticeable reduction in capacity.

So if you run a battery down to 50%, and then plug it back in and charge, that's effectively 'half a cycle'. All the way down and back up would be one cycle.

So...like I said, the main killer of batteries is using them :pac: Don't run them down unncessesarily (ie dont run off battery if you're sitting right beside a socket), but apart from that, don't worry about it. You bought it to use it, so use it.

Also, make sure when you are buying a replacement, that it is as factory-fresh as possible (as they gradually degrade over time anyway). This also means don't bother to buy a spare/second battery until you actually need it.

Overheal

In the older batteries some people swore by ejecting it when you were charged up and plugged in, only putting it in when you needed it. Cant say I've noticed any change in nearly 2 years to my batterys lifespan from ignoring that advice.

Nothing to worry about anyway. youll get a long life out of it. when you do need to replace it you can either buy a spare or if youre handy you can buy Li-io Cells, which look a lot like AAs and just swap them out after you crack open the battery.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/479447/laptop_battery_hack_dont_buy_a_new_one/

Greenman

Thanks folks.

I use my Toshiba Satellite as a desktop so when it eventually dies and I get my next one I'll run it without battery, dose that make sence?

The NC 10 will be a mobile machine.

BTW the repacing your battery video looks interesting.