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.
Charge until 95-100% full, then run on battery until it gets to around 10-15%. Then I charge again until full, and repeat.
So I constantly charge it and run on battery in a given day.
If you're planning on having your laptop on your desk most of the time, I'd just take the battery out of the laptop (ideally at around ~40%) and just run solely off AC power until you need to go mobile.
As Qing Dao said, cycling your battery is a quick way to degrade it, seeing as a battery can only last a fixed set of cycles.
this must be the most -fail- advice for this week, and it's Monday.
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Batteries wear out from three things: charge cycles, being charged to the maximum and kept that way, and being hot. But heat left aside, being charged past 95% takes the biggest hit IMO. I had battery fail with only 65 cycles or so (left full with laptop plugged in most of the time), where as usually lithium-ion batteries are supposed to last somewhere at about 300 to 500 cycles at most. Yet I've seen batteries with somewhere in the 400-ish cycles working just fine with very little loss of capacity.
on top of that, if you discharge your battery almost all the way down, even if the battery was not charged at full when the discharge started, it usually counts as one cycle, and you used only half of the battery life for that cycle, so kind of a waste.
so here's tips to save your battery:
- do not charge past 95%. Some people dont go even that high (I stop at 90%).
- do not discharge all the way down. Try to keep more than 10% at all times. (I try to charge back up at 20%).
- if you have to store the battery out of the laptop, leave it about half charged.
- dont leave in hot places.
EDIT:
you can charge to the max and discharge all the way down only to calibrate the battery gauge, like once in 2-3 months maybe, if needed.
If you need to discharge it to use it, then do that, that's what it's designed to do. But don't discharge just for the sake of discharging. Just if you don't normally discharge it with use (i.e. use primarily on AC), then discharge every 6 months to ensure a proper calibrated battery should you decide to use it on battery so it won't shut down at 20% because it's really at 5%.
miro_gt gives sounds advice. However not all laptops offer a setting when to stop charging. Just leave the battery in though, regardless. I've seen too many people lose data because they accidentally pop the power cord out and bam, everything's gone. Not to mention potential hardware damage from a hard power off by removing the power cable. Batteries are relatively cheap to replace, and most users will get a solid 2 years out of them, usually closer to 3, before needing replacement. Only exception are users that unplug and use it for extended periods daily. But that's why they have it. Just leave it in an forget it.
miro_gt gives great advise for longevity. That being said my battery failed in my ASUS after a few months but my 5 year old Dell battery is still going strong and I go 100% to 10% at least twice a week. . IF the battery can not be taken out I would just rely on the computer's charging system. I would also do all I can to keep the laptop temps down - There are some basic tips here
How to Reduce Laptop Temperature | eHow.com. Also if you have a dedicated video card downclock it for mundane tasks.
Just use it normally, keep it plug in is not going to instant kill the battery or anything. Most if not all recent machine auto switch to solely draw power from adapter when full charged, they don't keep decharge/charge constantly the battery.
Come from quick google search (dell)
Should I completely discharge my battery before I charge it?
A No, with current lithium ion batteries this practice does not improve the runtime of the battery. This practice is a holdover from the days in which NiMH batteries were used.
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Q Should I totally discharge, then recharge my DellT laptop battery occasionally to make it last longer?
A No, discharging and charging does not increase the life of a lithium ion battery.
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Q Can a Dell laptop battery be "overcharged"?
A No, the battery is designed to stop using the charger when it reaches full charge.
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Q How do I charge my Dell laptop battery?
A The battery charges in the laptop when the laptop is connected to an AC power source.
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Q What is ExpressChargeT?
A For a battery advertised as having the ExpressChargeT feature, the battery typically will have greater than 80% charge after about an hour of charging with the system off, and fully charge in about 2 hours with the system off.
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Q How long does it take for a Dell laptop battery to fully recharge?
A The charge time varies depending on the system. If the battery supports ExpressChargeT, the battery typically will have greater than 80% charge after about an hour of charging with the system off, and fully charge in about 2 hours with the system off. Batteries that do not support ExpressChargeT typically charge in about 3 hours with the system off. See your system's user's manual for more information.
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Q Do I need to charge my battery fully when I get a new system or a new battery?
A While not required, it is recommended to fully charge your battery.
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Q I generally do not unplug/undock my notebook. Does this hurt the battery?
A No, the battery has built in controls which stop the charging process when the battery is full.
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Q When docked or AC adapter is plugged into a wall outlet, am I using my battery charge?
A No, the notebook is powered by AC power.
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Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
