HP forum: battery or charger problem?

Thanks for explaining that. I have been doing the wrong thing by letting the battery drain completely between chargings. This must be a common misconception because people are still telling me to do this. Maybe old batteries were different, or was that story put out by a battery manufacturer wanting to sell more?

If a maker devoted a chapter in some manual to battery use and care, buyers might think "Is there something wrong with this machine's battery?" and sales would suffer.

Since no maker writes in length about this, they all are on the same playing field.

There's a lot written about today's batteries so I won't go on at length but the run it down advice was for the bad old NiCad batteries. Today we have LiON, LiPO and such. The rules change and the battery management in the laptops are much better. But the cycles are still low.

On the plus side I was pleased to see Samsung laptops implement a "charge to 80%" battery life extender. That 300 cycles changes to about 1500 when we do that. Of course if we just run on AC when possible we get many more years before a battery is required. We've had laptops sitting on desks with the AC on for 2 years (and longer) then we go mobile and surprised when the battery is still working for many hours.
Bob

I don't have a Samsung, but interested to hear about improvements in general. How do you know when it's charged to 80%, or does it mean not draining it below 80%?

Penny

When you ask "How do you know" I wonder if you are asking me to test that out by actually running it down and counting the minutes, then again with the 100% setting.

As we know that we only have 300 cycles I will not do this in response to any challenge unless a new battery is supplied.

Here's a link about that feature:
http://support-us.samsung.com/cyber/popup/iframe/pop_troubleshooting_fr.jsp?idx=165136
http://www.samsung.com/us/article/tips--tricks-extending-notebook-battery-life

The number 1000 or 1500 cycles changes with the model.
Bob

Now I understand! Thanks for the links. The green tips will be useful.

You have a lot in common with my ex husband Bob. It's Mars Venus communication!

Thanks for all the help.
Penny