The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Charge a battery when it is half discharged?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by stevenwu, Mar 11, 2007.

  1. stevenwu

    stevenwu Newbie

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    2
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    5
    Every so often I have to take out my laptop to work for one hour. And the battery is only half discharged when I return home. Then should I plug in the AC adapter to continue working or should I use remaining power in the battery? I heard that charging a battery when it is half discharged would do some damage to it. Is that right? What should I do then?
     
  2. Kdawgca

    Kdawgca rotaredoM repudrepuS RBN

    Reputations:
    5,855
    Messages:
    8,609
    Likes Received:
    2
    Trophy Points:
    206
    Notebook Battery Guide
    http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=91846
     
  3. chrisyano

    chrisyano Hall Monitor NBR Reviewer

    Reputations:
    956
    Messages:
    5,504
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    205
    You won't be doing any additional damage to your battery should you recharge it at 50% charge level.

    As mentioned above, the battery guide will give you more information on the topic.
     
  4. Tobi1982

    Tobi1982 Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    12
    Messages:
    213
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    One short answer from me if you dont have time to read the guide right now:

    It doesn't matter when you are using a lithium-ion or li-polymer battery as used in all modern notebooks.
    These can even be permanently damaged when they are discharged too low (but don't worry, your notebook's electronics cares about that and shuts off the notebook before it gets dangerous for your battery).

    Not fully discharging them was only a problem with NiCd-batteries and partly with NiMH-batteries.