Laptop Battery

[AlanR]

Hi,

I have a relatively new laptop and was in discussions with a colleague regarding the laptop battery and its maintenance. He was of the opinion that you should periodically drain the battery to maintain optimum performance so, every 2 weeks or so he runs his laptop on battery until the battery warning is displayed at 10%.

I suggested that a battery has a finite number of discharge / charge cycles and so by doing this he is in fact reducing the life of his laptop battery.

I am not a techie as such so i ask the question, what is the best approach to maintaining / extending battery life?

Regards

Alan

[Archangel]

The instructions for my Lenovo suggest running it below 15% regularly. (probably to get rid of the memory effect).

[chicane]

I suggested that a battery has a finite number of discharge / charge cycles and so by doing this he is in fact reducing the life of his laptop battery.

I've had a few laptops that spent 95% of their lives on mains and the battery stopped holding charge after 18 months - 2 years.

My (admittedly anecdotal) experience would suggest that running the battery right down on a regular basis does prolong it's life.

[expat]

The instructions for my Lenovo suggest running it below 15% regularly. (probably to get rid of the memory effect).

The power management on my IBM Thinkpad offer a choice of optimum readiness or optimum battery life: i.e.

• readiness: it starts to charge as soon as the charge drops even a little (95% I think);
• life: it waits until well discharged (15%??) before starting to charge up. Snag: if you unplug it then, you may not have much charge in the battery for unplugged use.

but I have heard Archangel's point too, and I have particularly been advised to do a couple of complete charge/discharge cycles at the start of the battery's life.

Doubtless somebody who actually knows will wake up in the course of the day and may offer facts.

[Turion]

Laptop batteries don't suffer from memory effect. Obselete ni-cad batteries had this problem.

How To take care your laptop battery?

Exercise the Battery. Do not leave a charged battery dormant for long periods of time. Once charged, you should at least use the battery at least once every two to three weeks. Also, do not let a Li-On battery completely discharge. (Discharing is only for older batteries with memory effects)

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 laptop battery.