Miscellaneous laptop discussions : Extending the life of my laptop's battery
- 3/20/09 3:10 PM
Extending the life of my laptop's battery
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 3/20/09 3:10 PM
Question:
Hello, I have a HP laptop that about 1.5-years-old and its battery is in such a pathetic state. When I pull the plug on it the laptop, it completely dies off (shuts down). It's as if my laptop is on a respirator (the battery) and it can't breathe on its own. Since it was getting highly frustrating that my original battery would not hold any charge whatsoever, I resolved to get a 12-cell lithium ion battery. Now, I am more concerned about how I can use my battery more efficiently. What should I do to preserve the condition of my new battery so it can work longer? It is expensive to replace a battery every year. Please let me know what all I can do to extend the life of my battery. Should I be plugged in all time while I'm using my laptop or should I charge and discharge it? I will greatly appreciate your recommendations. Thank you!
Submitted by: Raji K.
Here are some featured member answers to get you started. Please also check out what other members have contributed to this member's question.
Getting maximum life from a laptop battery --Submitted by Watzman
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7587_102-0.html?messageID=3001619#3001619
Here's what you should do... --Submitted by LMF5000
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7587_102-0.html?messageID=3001855#3001855
Extending the life of my laptop's battery --Submitted by Aparicio Martínez
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7587_102-0.html?messageID=3004958#3004958
For more information on Lithium-ion batteries you can also visit Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_battery#Guidelines_for_prolonging_Li-ion_battery_life
If you have any addition recommendations for Raji on prolonging the life of Lithium-ion batteries, please click on the reply link and post it. Please be as detailed as possible in your answer. Thanks!
I don't /know/ the answer, but...
by William Sommerwerck - 3/13/09 6:00 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
As far as I know, lithium-ion cells don't have a memory, and are not bothered by frequent recharging. Therefore, I would plug the notebook in whenever I was near an outlet.
Battery Removal
by Barking Mad - 3/21/09 5:42 PM In reply to: I don't /know/ the answer, but... by William SommerwerckOn a Toshiba laptop I thought that the AC power was run through the battery. That is, the external power input routes the AC through the battery to the computer. How do I access AC with the battery out?
the answer to your question is no
by Kegtapper - 3/22/09 7:08 AM In reply to: Battery Removal by Barking MadBatteries in most modern laptops are not 'in-line', that would make them essentially a fuse. There are switches (MOSFETS) that control the flow of power. When there is no battery in the unit a small mosfet switch directs the current to the system. When there is a battery in, another switch determines if there is enough charge in the battery, If yes, it sends to system, if no- it sends to the charge circuit.
Often the charge circuit is lower voltage than the actual AC adapter. example: a 19.2v power supply may only put 14v on the charge circuit.
Laptop batteries
by GFW - 3/13/09 6:05 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It is my understanding that Lithium cells work best if kept fully charged. Each deep discharge is hard on them, whereas a NiCad cell is the opposite - with them it is best to let the battery run down fairly low before charging.
Now that you have gone lithium, I would try to never let the charge get below the halfway point except when necessary.
battery life
by sedicn - 4/3/09 1:53 AM In reply to: Laptop batteries by GFWJust the same tips about laptop battery from http://www.laptopbatteryshop.co.uk/
Plug it in
by DSE319 - 3/13/09 6:15 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
When ever convenient, plug it in. You have somewhere between 300 to 500 discharges of most Lithium Ion batteries.
Laptop Batteries
by darrenforster99 - 3/13/09 6:36 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi Raji,
Unfortunatly with modern lithium-ion batteries there is very little that can be done to prolong the life of the battery.
Years ago with ni-cad and ni-mh batteries the solution was to fully charge them at first, and then fully discharge them every time
There are however a few things that can help a bit,
firstly when buying a new laptop battery try and find one that has been stored in a cold warehouse properly. The Duracell batteries tend to state on them that they've been stored in a cold warehouse.
With Li-ion batteries the minute they are made they start to degrade, there is safety contacts inside the battery that start dissolving as soon as the battery is made, once this reaches a critical level the battery is designed to refuse charge, accepting charge could be very dangerous at this point and cause the battery to explode, hence why the safety mechanism steps in and refuses charge.
By storing the battery in a cold warehouse it prevents the battery from degrading as much until you receive the battery. Even though it prevents it, it doesn't fully stop the degrading.
The next thing is try and see if you can get hold of a battery that has only recently been made, check the batch number on the battery to see. The newer the battery the better, even if it's been kept in a cold warehouse the battery will still have started to degrade.
There is one final solution, it is entirely at your own risk, I have heard of some success stories, although some people have also said it's not worth doing it, and others have reported that it has damaged the battery as water has formed inside. This is to store the battery when not in use in the freezer. As I can tell this is similar to the way the manufacturers store the batteries in their warehouses to prevent them degrading. However storing thousands of batteries in frozen warehouse is totally different to storing one in a home freezer. I would probably go for the fact that this method isn't worth it.
Batteries have a charge/discharge life.
by saadhusain - 3/13/09 6:40 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The best way is to use AC with the battery removed unless you really need it.
extending your battery life
by tongkianshin - 3/13/09 7:08 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi, i must said that i not an expert , but only to let other know what i do to extend my laptop battery life.
I bought an Asus laptop 5 years ago, the battery can still hold charge and can last for around 1 hour time. it almost same as a the time i bought it (remember it's 5 years ago).
What i do is always take out battery when using AC adaptor, tis way the battery won't charge every time i use it. Every battery got it own charge circle, some 100 times, some may be less or more.
Charge your battery only when it run out or when you know you need to use it outdoor next day. Some laptop provide a program to recalibrate your battery, use it at least once every 6 months (Asus provide it under bios setting, i can't find any program to do that for dell laptop).
Hope this can help. Thank you.
the best method ever i thought forRetaining the battery life
by amrinder121345 - 3/14/09 6:32 AM In reply to: extending your battery life by tongkianshinThe best method to retain the life of battery is always try to use the battery only wen one needs ,,,,, means if u have power supply and go for it n remove the battery minimise the circles of recharging the battery again n again
response to tongkianshin.
by bobbybabby - 3/17/09 8:27 PM In reply to: extending your battery life by tongkianshinI agree with tongkianshin. While using AC power, I remove my battery and keep it out until a day before I need it.Then I re-insert the battery and let it charge overnight. I've been doing this for more than a year, and my battery is still operating like new.
extending your battery life
by POP61 - 3/20/09 10:53 PM In reply to: extending your battery life by tongkianshinI do exactly the same with my 4 years old Toshiba Satellite and my battery is fine.
use ac adapter
by patdegnan - 9/23/09 8:22 PM In reply to: extending your battery life by tongkianshinThanks for your kind information. I agree with you, and always use ac adapter in the home.
but how to store my laptop battery?
make your batteries last
by vid1900 - 3/13/09 7:21 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
NEVER keep the battery in the laptop, always fully charged.
Unless you need to be on battery power, let the battery drain to 30% power and store it out of the laptop.
Only charge it up 100% when you are going out and actually need to run on battery power.
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