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    When should I charge my battery?

    Discussion in 'Alienware M11x' started by wrathofdeath, Aug 27, 2011.

  1. wrathofdeath

    wrathofdeath Notebook Evangelist

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    I was wondering if I should keep my battery charged in all the time when I am at a desk.. (I am in school now) or should I drain it every now and then? If I drain it... should I drain it 100%?
     
  2. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

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    Leave it and dont think too much about it. If anything a full drain would be worse.
     
  3. wrathofdeath

    wrathofdeath Notebook Evangelist

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    Allright :) Anyone else got any other answers?
     
  4. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

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    There are at least 2 threads in th last week covering this question
     
  5. wrathofdeath

    wrathofdeath Notebook Evangelist

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    Not specifically targeting my questions though......
     
  6. GNandGS

    GNandGS Notebook Deity

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    Actually this is the 4th. :) Summary:
    No need to drain batt
    It might actually increase wear rate to drain on reg basis (will IMO)
    No matter what you do somebody doing same will have diff results

    Batt memory issues are not what they once were so no need for fully discharged batt. There are one off issues but no planning can avoid them
     
  7. DrGoodvibes

    DrGoodvibes Notebook Deity

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    Wat GNandGS says.

    I gave up on 'managing' my battery as the M11xR1 BIOS wouldn't allow continued disabling of battery charging without going into BIOS each time to disable it. Thus I couldn't maintain approx 65% capacity charge when using AC only.

    A battery monitor app, that allows disabling charging also became a pain on each reboot.

    I Just recharged before the battery got below ~15% and stopped worrying about it.

    1½ years later and I have lost ~15% of my battery capacity. No biggie in the scale of things.

    One year of battery use.

    Use Battery Bar to obtain the Batteries Max. mWh which will be in the range of 69,000mWh when new. Note it. Then in a year or two check again and calculate the battery capacity.

    Should last until an Ivy Bridge M11x comes out. :D