Lap Top Batteries

[sheepdog 10]

I just got a new lap top for Christmas from hubby. This is the first one I've ever had. I'm wondering about battery life. Will it hurt it if I leave it plugged in most of the time? I know some things have batteries that can be overcharged if left in too long. I really don't know how to handle this one at all. I do need to occasionally use it on it's battery, like when we go on vacation, but most of the time it will just be in the house, probably in the front room by the couch so I don't have to get up off my lazy butt when I'm watching TV at night and want to take a quick peek at my emails without having to get up during the commercial breaks and run all the way to the far end of the house to my office to check.

[jlhaslip 4]

My laptop is about a year and a half old. It is usually left plugged in and still gets a couple of hours without the cord.

Most new laptops have enough smarts to stop charging when the battery is full, so I don't get real worried about it.

One approach would be to leave the machine plugged in to the wall with the battery removed.

Only install the battery when you are needing the mobility of the battery pack.

Never tried it this way, but it might help.

[sheepdog 10]

Thanks for responding. I think you are probably right. I also later realized that the plug in the lap top is plugged into is the one that is also controlled by the light switch by the front door, so when ever the lights are off it's not getting charged anyway, so it is probably alright. Surely with all this modern technology they do have batteries smart enough to over do themselves.

Now......if only I could get a handle on Windows 8.

[k_nitin_r 8]

Laptop batteries last a lot longer than they used to. At the start of the millenium, the laptop batteries that I had would barely last till the warranty expired so they would send me a second battery and past that point I would be buying new batteries every year and a half. From sometime around 2005-2006, the batteries that they've been providing with the laptops have been running for about half a decade before going dead so I'm pretty sure that battery technologies aren't the same as they were in the past.

Speaking of Windows 8, it's just a way for Microsoft to make additional licensing revenue. They built a really good way to build applications using HTML and Javascript, but then they locked out the developers by requiring them to pay an annual fee for listing the software in the app store or to pay for an enterprise license to use those applications through a private application repository (not really sideloading like we do with Android, but more like the private AppStore apps like Apple provides for enterprise deployment).

[sheepdog 10]

Oh yes, God forbid Microsoft runs out of licensing revenue! Aren't they just moments away form total bankruptcy? I am of course being a wise bottom. This time I just typed the word bottom, I didn't even try to type my usual substitute for that word, cause lately I can't even get a rse past our censors. So picky! Wonder don't they know that word is actually an animal?

[NNNOOOOOO 0]

Back on topic, here is my experience. Back over one year ago, maybe two, I bought an old laptop from my older sisters then boyfriend. It had a busted screen and the battery didn't last but five minutes on a full charge. I had the screen replaced and bought a new battery so I could take it to college as I had an hour and a half between classes. My younger sister had a laptop, but her charger didn't work. So she used mine, which, obviously, didn't fit. Her forcing it to fit damaged the cord so badly, I had to get a replacement charger.

 

The replacement charger was designed to fit multiple types of laptops, so the plug didn't fit. By positioning the plug a certain way, I could make it fit. But because it was too small, I had to keep the battery in so that if when it lost connection, it wouldn't shut down if I were in the middle of something. The replacement charger no longer makes a connection, so I use my dad's charger (the odds of his charger meeting the requirements of my laptop? well it does). But I am in the habit of leaving it plugged in while using it. I always unplug the charger when I'm not using it (I use that outlet for other things too). I've not noticed much, if any, performance decrease by doing so.

 

Lastly, I will post something I heard on another forum (which was taken down and replaced with a blog which was then taken down and I don't know the future plans with it). When I first got the new battery, I was told to fully charge the battery, then let it die completely. I guess this is for calibration reasons? I also read somewhere that laptop batteries have a "memory" in that you should leave it fully charged when not in use. I guess the lower the charge you leave on it, the less capacity it will have over time (shorter life).

[sheepdog 10]

Most of the appliances I've had other than computers say the same thing about fully charging the battery before you use it, so that certainly makes sense. Of course I just had to try out the new lap top as soon as I got it, but it was plugged in for that first use. However, I did forget about that plug in being controlled with the light switch, so I doubt the battery had enough time to get a full charge the first time. I've actually only used it on battery once when I was working with tech support on some things. It didn't last very long that way. Not sure how long actually, but probably not more than 2 hours. Hope I haven't permanently messed it up.

[NNNOOOOOO 0]

That depends on a few things, one of which being how charged it was at the time. With mine, I can get anywhere from two hours to three from a full charge, depending on what I do on it. The more you do on it or the more resource intensive things you do in it, the faster the battery will drain. If I play one of the few games it supports, I'll only get two hours out of it. If I listen to music, it'll last just over two hours. Browsing the internet will get me an hour and a half. Writing text files will get me up to three and a half hours.

[demonboy1990 0]

well i keep my laptop plugged in when i am using it and it has not had any problems,.

it should say (plugged in, not charging) so it must stop charging when it gets to a limit mine is on 98% charged and it stopped charging then

it stops charging if it is plugged in or not but having it plugged in charges the battery so if you want to bring it somewhere where you can not plug it in you can still use it it will not cause any problems having it plugged in when your husband is using it just do not have it plugged when he is not using it it will over heat as well as waste electric.

[NNNOOOOOO 0]

Just ran a small test on mine that kind of depended on the laptop's estimated time left on the battery. I wanted to listen to music and didn't want to get dad's charger. From a full charge, I was estimated two and a half hours of charge. During this period, I used the laptop to charge my iPod and the music was on an external hard drive (two devices using power from the USB ports. I would say that two and a half hours was fairly accurate, but I was done when it was at, maybe, 47% charge level. So I didn't get the full timing test.

[demonboy1990 0]

Well mine normally last about 5 hours or so the max mine has charged is for 8 hours,

i only use it without plugged in if i bring it somewhere i can not plug it in .

[k_nitin_r 8]

There are 'disposable' (okay, so maybe I made that up - they are cheap enough to throw away every year) batteries that we can use to power our laptops as well. I'm not sure if they are safe because the manufacturer doesn't recommend them, but they are available from a manufacturer in China and it plugs right in where the battery would fit and doesn't last as long as the original batteries would, but it's cheap so you could throw it away after a year's use. The typical laptop battery lasts for about 2 years because its capacity is significantly affected, assuming one uses the battery almost every work day. You may be able to get more life out of yours if you don't use it on battery all the time - I had a laptop battery that lasted 7 years and still had 2 hours of battery operation while in its 7th year.

[VladyslavAfrin 0]

Hello. My old Acer Aspire 4253 runs on battery for about 5 hours. When I work at home, I plug it in. I take out the battery.