FYI: battery charging modes

Thought I'd share this...
On my new 13, I saw that it had a BIOS option for either "express charge" or "normal charge". While "express charge" will charge the battery faster, that charge rate is more abusive to the battery and will likely shorten the battery's overall lifespan. The default value is "express charge", so I changed mine to "normal charge" to extend the life of my battery. If I'm in a pinch, I can also go change to express temporarily.

Sounds like this isn't anything new to Dell laptops, but it is new since my m11x r1, so I thought I'd share it here.

 

i noticed that as well, but they took away the ability to turn off battery charging.... they keep taking away helpful features, i dont get it

 

There's no need to remove battery charging. I think this has been removed since the m17xR3 (I never noticed the feature on my m14xR2).
Once the battery is at 100%, the charger powers only the laptop, bypassing the battery altogether (essentially).

 

Sorry, triple post!

 

Sorry triple post!.

 

Aside from the battery options in the AW13 BIOS, there is a battery charging option using the battery icon in the system tray in Win 8.1. If you right click on the battery icon, there is a menu item to choose "Desktop mode battery charge". It is a Dell application. The verbiage for the application indicates that it will not overcharge the battery. If the application is enabled, it allows you to decide when to charge your battery to 100%. I have the application enabled but I am not certain how well it works.

Update - I selected "Standard" charge in the BIOS and now the battery does not charge unless I enable it in the Dell application above. Pretty slick.

 

http://www.batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries

studies have PROVEN that it is best to leave li-ion batteries at about 40-60% charge. So what I would would do is charge it to 50 and turn charging off. And if i needed a full charge I would charge it up ahead of time. After 3 years of having my computer, I was able to maintain battery health at 99%. But since you seem to know it all, I will let you continue to do what you like.

 

So in other words, use desktop charging mode.
Really, that is what you are looking for.
It also doesn't help that your source is more than 4 years old. I'm going to assume there have been more recent studies about this.
And the sarcasm doesn't help. It just makes your credibility drop.

 

I didn't know you could stop charging part way and still have the laptop "on". That's really cool.

 

desktop charging mode wasn't ideal, but it was better than nothing. But the alienware 15 doesn't have that feature, atleast mine on windows 8.1 doesn't.

No sarcasm either, just facts

 

yes it was awesome, it was available on the alienware m14x. back when alienware still listened to the customer base....