I usually leave my laptop on for most of the day, as I use it quite frequently. I unplug it (from the power outlet) when I know I wont be using it for a while. However, I sometimes I shut it down, but leave the A/C adapter plugged in the power outlet.
Following is the light (the one circled) that I see lit when I shut down the system, but leave it plugged in the wall:
make sure you run the laptop on battery till it is empty atleast once or twice a month. Otherwise your battery will progressively degenrate faster and faster to the point where you can never hold battery power for more than a minute! (you can use some latest power management stuff that will do the draining for you automatically but that's such a waste)
Well as funny Jammies said, you do need to drain the betteries at least once a month, though I'd advise not to leave your laptop plugged in. Simply remove the connection from the back of your laptop if u feel difficult to remove the plug from the wall.
I hardly use the battery anymore because my laptop usually sits in my room where I use the A/C power and I only use the battery when I take my laptop in the family room or elsewhere.
I guess I'll try to make it a habit to drain the battery at least once a month. The reason why I use it so little is because the amout of hours I had when I first bought it was around 3.5-4hrs and it got reduced to 3 (or less) hrs. In addition, I find it annoying when I get the sign that I'm running out and the screen also starts to get dim.
^ well, now you know why it became worse and worse...you will never be able to bring it back to the original 4 hours but you can slow the further degradation
some manufacturers suggest you remove the battry if going to use it from other power source for prolonged time. It damages the battery. My friends been doing this for a year his battery lasts 10 mins even though new.
^ I have not come across that advise and I can't reason out why they'd say that. Nowadays you have automated power management .. software can control battery refresh etc and batteries are relatively memory free.
Why is it so difficult to just run on the battery when it's fully charged until it runs down? sheeeez!
Most rechargeable batteries should not be constantly charged or they get degraded. This includes laptop batteries, cell phones, cordless phones etc. If you just use the laptop in one place remove the battery. I charge my cordless phones once a week for about 24 hrs, I have about 3 of them, my cell phone gets charged twice a week yada yada...
I don't leave the battery in the laptop. I have put it aside and only put it in when I don't find it comfortable to use A/C power. Otherwise, my laptop only runs on A/C power with no battery inside.
I beg to differ. Almost all the new laptops use lithium ion batteries. Lithium ion batteries do not suffer from the memory effect which was so typical of the Nickle/Cadmium batteries. Completely draining the batteries actually degrades the battery performance. Losing battery life over time is normal. If you want to know more, here is a link:
The indicator you have circled is normal to light up when you have the machine powered up or is in standy-by/hibernate mode. It should not light up when the machine is completely shut-down. Even then, I don’ think there is any danger if it lights up.
Just to make myself clear, I do not use the battery and A/C power at the same time. I leave the battery out when I'm on A/C power and only insert it when I do not wish to use A/C power.
Just last night, I thought I'd do what funny jammies suggested and realized my battery life has gone down drastically. Anyway, I drained it out last night and recharged it. I'll try running the laptop on the battery soon to see if the battery has become any better or if there has been a permanent damage in terms of the amount of hours I could possibly get out of it.
you dont need to drain the laptop battery once a month if its a lithium ion one. thats a myth. in fact, battery life goes down with the number of times u discharge and charge it.
WitchDR, some newer laptops may come with LiION batteries, but u don't know what she has. On a general rule it is good to not charge batteries if they don't need it. Plus cordless and cell phones and most other rechargeable devices still use NiMH and they do need the above mentioned methods (discharge and not overcharge).
While on digi, queer said how I should half use it every week so that the computer keeps track of it. He said there may be a way to reset it to get the full/initial amount back. Does anyone know if it's possible and if it is, then how could I possibly reset it?
erm.. to clarify what sadiyah wrote, i said one should let the battery run down to atleast half charge once a month so that the comp can recalibrate the charge meter accurately. if you dont do this, you'd end up with a perfectly good battery but a comp which will shut off much earlier than it should because it reads the charge as empty way before it is.
is there any way to recalibrate the "charge meter" for a battery thats gone out of calibration badly?
also, if its a standard cough windows (cough) operating sadiyah baji, then tweak it to use ‘maximum performance’ and not ‘default/maximum uptime’ and ur screen dimming should be fixed..
also, when u leave it for extended time, and know-for-sure u wont be using it in an emergency when u will use it next, let it run NORMAL and take away ac power.. let it crash/dump/suspend/hibernate (Whatever case u’ve setted up) … just make sure u arent doing any downloadings/active processing qued-tasks and u should be just fine :k:
Alright, I just did a $150 test. I left my laptop plugged in wherever i went. My LiIon battery is now totally screwed. I can barely get about an hour out of the battery with hardly anything running. Where I used to be able to go 4 hours easy. So there goes the theory that u can leave LiIon battery plugged in without worrying about killing it.
:k: