Quick and easy laptop question..

Basq

Got a new Laptop for my 21st.

Just a quick question.

Is it better for it to be plugged in and ran off the power supply where possible?..

OR

Is it better to charge it, run it off the battery, recharge it when almost out of juice and run it on the battery again.. and so on?

Basically, should it be plugged into a power supply where possible or will this decrease the battery life?

Thanks!

Dellarocca

Most laptop batteries are ****e so I don't think it matters one way or the other.
I only have my power lead plugged in when the battery hits about 20% capacity but thats becoming more and more nessessary. I don't think that having it constantly plugged in is good for the battery.

Capt'n Midnight

Depends on the battery.
Generally you don't have to deep discharge every time, but probably good practice to do so for the first three charges and afterwards once a month. Best to RTFM or check the manufacturers web site since they know best about how their battery works and it charging regime

UPS's use lead acid batteries, these together with most other batteries don't like being continuously overcharged nor can they go through an infinite number of deep discharges. Lithium batteries - most new laptops - have a microprocessor built in to take care of the battery and AFAIK don't have any memory effect.

NiCAD's - only in 10 year old laptops - the much hyped memory effect is most pronounced if you repeatedly discharge to the same level before recharging, while this can happen with systems that are off-line or power down for fixed intervals this rarely happens with user products. NiMH are similar.

Car batteries & other high current lead acid batteries don't like being discharged below about 80% of full charge ! - so not a good ideal to run laptops off them for long periods.

Shrimp

A good idea when running it off the mains is take the battery out and just run it from the plug.. and also, try and let the battery decharge fully.... then charge it to the max everytime you are charging it, dont be constantly topping it up! that way you will get the most out of the battery!

Tiriel

yikes I assumed it saved the battery life when you keep it plugged in and run it off AC power.. my laptop will be 2 yrs old in January.. and still has over 2 hrs battery life.. which is pretty good.. so I think I'll stick to my way!!!

Basq

Thanks for the advice all.

I've one of the Hewlett Packard zv5000z series.

Opened it up there... it's a massive Lithium Ion battery.

I'm just enquiring about this because i won't really ever have it away from where there's a reachible power supply.

Can't find much on Hewlett Packard's site regarding their batteries. Will have a browse in the manual but don't think there's much in there either!

Shrimp

just take the batt. out when your running it form the power!

uberwolf

my machine has multiple settings, and is set up to run faster when plugged in and more efficently when I'm running on battery. Your machine prob has the potential to do the same

tman

i thought lith ion batteries liked being partially charged

Basq

Thanks all for the advice. Much appreciated!

Will try running it off the power from now on then.

savemejebus

it's worth bearing in mind that a laptop battery will discharge continually no matter what you're doing with it (apart from charging it). So if you take it out of your laptop altogether it will still discharge, although very slowly, and could die if you let it go too far down.

carbsy

tman wrote:

i thought lith ion batteries liked being partially charged

You're right tman, you don't have to discharge them fully before a recharge.It makes no difference...