Miscellaneous laptop discussions : Extending the life of my laptop's battery
- 3/20/09 3:10 PM
Use your old battery, too!
by spinella - 3/23/09 4:44 PM In reply to: Getting maximum life from a laptop battery by WatzmanI suspect most people reading this already have a mostly worn out battery--leave that one in at home, and put a new one in when you travel. Mark both batteries with the date you got them so you know which is which 
The biggest revelation is that LIion batteries have a limited set of charge cycles, probably 3-600. Buying a battery with twice the capacity is not going to increase the number of charge cycles, so I just bought the 6-cell replacement for about $60 online.
UPS, btw, is uninterruptible power supply. If you take your battery out while you run it on the AC power, you have no backup time at all if it gets unplugged. Even an old battery will probably get you across the office or downstairs at home before you plug in again.
Laptop battery life
by TLComputers - 3/13/09 7:32 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Charge it up overnight and run it all the way down during the day. Plug it in once the battery is fully discharged and leave it plugged in until it's fully charged, then unplug and run it all the way down again. Don't use it plugged in all the time; that will kill the battery quickly.
That scheme is nice in theory, but hard to do in real life. In general, repeat the full charge/discharge mantra as often as possible. I got nearly three years out my last battery that way.
Extending li-ion battery pack life
by kevin.talbot - 3/20/09 9:48 PM In reply to: Laptop battery life by TLComputersProbably the WORST usage model for a li-ion battery is to do as TLComputers suggests... fully charge it, pull the plug, run it all day down to near zero then recharge. Unlike Nicd or Nimh cells that LOVE to be used hard like this, Li-ion packs last much longer if they are only partially discharged and then recharged.
The issue of the battery getting warm in the laptop on a ac adapter hurts them too as Li-ion cells are much more sensitive to high temps. Unplugging the charger when the pack is charged is a good idea - less heat and less chance of over charging the pack. Oh... and less chance of it bursting into flames 
Best rule of thumb for a li-ion pack is charge it frequently and don't heavily discharge it. A li-ion pack will last much longer if it's run down 20-50% and recharged than if it is run down to near zero before recharging. You will get more cycles out of it and you will get more total "energy delivery" over the life of the pack.
Different rules apply to the li-ion cells in power tools - they are not the common li-ion cells in laptops. They are special li-ion-phosphate and are designed to replace NICD/NIMH cells and deliver huge currents. Li-ion cells in laptops are not designed for high power uses like this.
Extending life of laptop battery
by dangelini - 3/13/09 7:47 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
GOOD QUESTION. I have a HP laptop also and have the same problem so I leave mine plugged in all the time and would also be curious about how to solve this issue.
Thank you in advance.
Debbie K
Keeping your laptop plugged in - BAD IDEA
by leonlwu - 3/20/09 7:37 PM In reply to: Extending life of laptop battery by dangeliniHi Debbie,
Let me tell you what happened in my case. I have an hp DV6449US model laptop which I bought back in Aug 2007, come Nov 2008 (if not earlier) I started noticing that my laptop could not hold on to its charge no matter how long I charged it for. This January (‘09) things got so frustrating for me that whenever I would unplug my laptop, it will switch itself off the next second. Literally it was as if my laptop was on respirator. I started encountering several problems with my laptop, let me warn you if your laptop is doing the same thing you are heading for some major deterioration of your laptop. I started noticing that my laptop will turn itself off (while on charge) for no reason whatsoever, then the clock on the lower right hand corner started messing up in such a way that I had to sync it with the internet every morning and then when I would turn off my laptop and turn it back up the next morning the time would have stuck at the time I had switched my laptop off the previous night. Seeing that happen for more than 2 weeks I started freaking out, I am a girl and not a big techie when it comes to laptop so a virus hitting my laptop is a huge irreparable deal to me. I did not know what to do, I called HP support center and they weren't of big help, I took my laptop to the local Best Buy to get it repaired where they told me that it might be happening because of virus invasion and I would have to reset my entire laptop which they could do for me at a cost of $199. Debbie, I was so skeptical about this whole thing but I luckily found the solution rather tripped on to the solution then actually figuring it out. I was able to take care of all my problems with one shot, getting a new battery for my laptop. I ordered a 12 cell lithium ion battery and the moment I changed my old screwed up battery with the new battery, since then I have had no absolutely no problem whatsoever. Well I got side tracked with talking about my battery...so my brother a computer engineer told me what I had done wrong with my original battery that came with the laptop. He told me I burnt the battery down by keeping it plugged all the time, which is true in retrospect. I did keep my laptop charged most of the time when I was using it, where as what you are supposed to do is charge it up and then discharge it then recharge it. There were times when I would keep my laptop plugged in overnight, OMG my poor battery, no wonder it gave up on me. So literally I was the reason why my battery went nuts on me, I should have listened to my brothers’ constant warnings. So now, with my new battery I charge it and then it run its course which with this new 12 cell battery I get a life of nearly 4hrs and then recharge it. But after reading some answers to my questions, I am thinking if buying another 6 cell battery for regular use would be a wise decision and keeping my 12 cell for mobile purposes since it did cost me a lot to get. Well so Debbie, if you don’t want to face the kind of problems I had before buying my new battery, I would suggest to get a new battery as soon as possible and if you are a busy working person like me I will suggest to get 2 batteries (one 6 cell and one 12 cell)
Trust me when my laptop clock started screwing up I had a wakeup call, my laptop was screaming for help. Well in my case I lucked out that the problem got solved with changing my battery but it might not be the same under other circumstances.
Thank you all for answering my question, I will look in to buying another 6 cell battery perhaps to keep things smooth with my laptop. Other than that I love my HP.
-Raji
Battery Life
by BlazNT - 3/13/09 7:47 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First is to setup the battery correctly. As recommended by most Laptop makers, is to fully charge the battery before first use. Plug it in and do not use it till it is fully charged. I do not stop at just this. When I worked for a large hospital and was in charge of buying and supporting all the laptops I learned to do one more thing. I would remove the power supply from the laptop and completely discharge the battery. Continue to turn on the laptop until it is completely out of battery power. Windows settings will put the laptop in Sleep or Hibernate mode. You do not want that to happen while discharging the battery so use the computer all the time you are doing so. Then completely charge the battery without using the computer. This trains the battery for a long life. I usually got 2 years out of the batteries. One more very important thing it to never leave the power supply plugged into the laptop and not into the wall outlet. I see lots of people just unplug the power supply from the outlet and put it in their laptop bag and off they go. Some poorly made power supplies will drain the battery until it cannot be recharged. One more thing is that you should charge your battery as little as possible. If you have to use the battery during the day, then continue to use the battery till you need to plug it in. Batteries have a limited amount of charges before they don’t charge any more. I do not know what that number is but I have heard from a couple of businesses that sell batteries it is around 365. I hope this helps in your battery woes.
One more thought is that if you have already started using your battery you can still do what I said above. It should help with battery life.
Batteries on laptops in general...
by BubbaKatz - 3/13/09 7:52 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Most batteries that come with today's laptops are only going to last two to four years at max. My experience has been in the two to three year range.
As the cell density increases, you will longer lasting use out of them on a daily basis. I recently got a 6-cell battery that states a 9.5 hour daily life. This assumes that WiFi and Bluetooth are minimally used.
Battery life depends on the number of charge cycles - some will only have 1,000 cycles or less - this is not always listed by the manufacturer.
The first thing I do when I get a new battery for a laptop, headset, phone, you-name-it: I charge it all the way to max and then use it until it is nearly completely depleted.
I do this two to three times and then leave it plugged in only for charging.
To extend the life of the battery when you are working on it:
ºturn off all external functions that are not being used like WiFi and Bluetooth
ºreduce the screen brightness if in a dimly lit area - especially on flights
ºunplug external USB and other devices like cd/dvd drives - even USB drives like the Cruzers can use juice each time the system polls it to see if it is still connected.
ºextreme temperatures will affect the chemistry of the battery and shorten it's life.
It also does not pay to buy extra batteries and store them. They have a relatively short shelf life if not being used.
Full charge-discharge initially..
by Srini T - 3/13/09 8:03 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I'm not a techie, but have been using laptops, netbooks and other wireless devices for several years now and here's what i do...
1. Initial: whenever i get a new device, i do the 'full charge-full discharge' cycle. I was told this helps in extending battery life so for good measure i repeat the cycle thrice, and i haven't discovered anything to the contrary so i keep doing it with every new device. My laptop batteries have never failed - i mean over 2 hrs of juice even after 2 years.
2. Usually the device handbook advices that best practice is to keep charging and discharging, instead of keep the laptop plugged in all the time. i usually do this the first few weeks only, and just forget it afterwards... however my job involves lot of traveling so i'm not 'plugged in' all the time.
3. another thought, though i've not tried it - if you're usually plugged in, then maybe you could remove the battery, and only use it when you're on the move...
how to extend the life of your laptop's battery
by unhappy hp user - 3/13/09 8:09 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
leave it plugged in.
Extending the life of my laptop's battery
by bernie888 - 3/13/09 8:11 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
What has worked well for me is the following:
1. Stay connected to MAINS when you do not really need battery.
2. When you go off the mains, then continue using the battery until it empties completely. DO NOT reconnect the mains until the battery is empty. So far my 3 experiences have given me a 3-years battery life in each case. Blessings,
Extend laptop battery life
by bgh - 3/13/09 8:16 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First of all, if you leave your laptop plugged most of the time, even when you have it turned off, take out the battery. Being continuously plugged in,cooks the battery and decreases its life dramatically. Another tip, you might use, is once the battery is fully charged, unplug the laptop and use it until the battery needs recharging, plug it in again, charge and unplug. You will find the battery will charge faster and stay charged longer if you use this method.
batteries
by papa54 - 3/13/09 8:17 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
well a few years ago they talked about batteries having memory, which at that time i laughed it off but found that batteries do have a memory problem. the more we charge them the more they need charging so i have found that its best to use it till it quits and then slip in the electric hook up and when i shut down for the night to let the laptop stay on and charging... so far works for me except this weekend i did something dumb by leaving my battery charger else where..i did manage to get about 2 and 1/2 hours outta my HP Notebook...
more battery time would would be nice..
Battery ife
by garychirgwin - 3/13/09 8:19 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
The best way I have ever found is to charge battery fully and remove and only use the battery if the laptop is not plugged in when you use the battery use it until it dies recharge and repeat
Gary Chirgwin, MCSE, DCSE, HP Master Tech, A+
Battery Life
by ronjon - 3/13/09 8:36 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There is a very good and accessible article covering this subject at http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm, which will be of interest to all laptop owners!
battery life
by CJS-Florida - 3/13/09 8:37 PM In reply to: Extending the life of my laptop's battery by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
It's all part of HP's built in obsolescence program. even if you try and maintain the battery per HP's suggestions, you cannot get too much more than a year and half out of their batteries.
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