Taking care of your laptop battery

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peanutbutter

New member
Hey all!

I've got my laptop for about a year now, and i just realised that the battery life has dropped for quite a bit. I was wondering what you do to keep your battery good for as long as possible.

I already try to prevent drains from 100% to 0% as much as possible, and just keep it on the charger when i will be using it for longer periods of time so i won't use any of the battery cycles, which its limited on.

Is there any other trick to keep the battery alive?
 
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Stijn

New member
There are so many advices about battery life, that I don't know anymore which are true. Some say that it's not good for the battery to leave the laptop plugged in when the battery is fully charged, or using the laptop on battery a bit and then recharging, implying you should drain the battery to 0%.

So I'm a little confused right now... Maybe all these 'tricks' aren't working at all, and the battery is just a weak part of a laptop.
I have seen too many laptops with a dead battery.
 
Genesis

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
Stijn said:
So I'm a little confused right now... Maybe all these 'tricks' aren't working at all, and the battery is just a weak part of a laptop.
I have seen too many laptops with a dead battery.
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True. Like I've seen with Toshiba and also with Sony that they have laptop battery issues.

I'd say for the most part though batteries have improved in design to the extent that some of the old rules don't apply as much any longer. Like allowing the laptop to drain to 0% used to be considered bad for the battery, but that depends on the design of the battery. Some of the laptop corporations have clued in that users like to have their laptops plugged in for long periods of time, so I'm sure some have made allowances for that in the design of their batteries.
 
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Stijn

New member
Battery life of a MacBook is pretty good. I get about 4hrs at max, but most of the time less, on my three year old Acer laptop.

Some older Dell and HP devices I worked with had battery issues, but it can also be due to the age of the laptop.
 
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peanutbutter

New member
Yeah macbooks appear to survive pretty long but my lenovo has dropped from like 3.5 hours to 2.5 in like a year :c

3.5 was already mediocre, but now it's really starting to become a hassle when i get take my laptop to an exam for example, where it has to last for 2 hours +

But i always assume that when i plug it in, when it's 100%, that it doesn't make any cycles, but i dont know if it works that way... Anyway, i guess ill just get a powerbank for my laptop or something like that :p
 
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adamthewebman

New member
Laptop battery life is dependent on a number a factors.
1. The batterys charactoristics [Amphour rating, output voltage, lifetime charge cycle raitting, design and quality of charge controll IC in battery, age of battery etc. ]
2. The Computers demand [system load, cpu speed, fan speed etc.]
3. Tempature [ Ambient tempature, system tempature, battery tempature]
4. The voltage regulation, filtering and charge controller in the computer. Also, some systems can be configured to only start charging a battery if it is below a cerin % and stop at a certin %. [to avoid floating the battery at 99 to 100% regulary.]
 
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peanutbutter

New member
adamthewebman said:
Laptop battery life is dependent on a number a factors.
1. The batterys charactoristics [Amphour rating, output voltage, lifetime charge cycle raitting, design and quality of charge controll IC in battery, age of battery etc. ]
2. The Computers demand [system load, cpu speed, fan speed etc.]
3. Tempature [ Ambient tempature, system tempature, battery tempature]
4. The voltage regulation, filtering and charge controller in the computer. Also, some systems can be configured to only start charging a battery if it is below a cerin % and stop at a certin %. [to avoid floating the battery at 99 to 100% regulary.]
Click to expand...

Could you perhaps elaborate a bit more on point 3, about temperatures? I know that batteries perform worse when they are cold, but my laptop often becomes quite hot, does that also make them perform worse for example?

And i'm aware of point 4, but not being sure that your laptop is 100% charged when it's connected to the charger for a while really annoys me. I just really want a proper indication of how long i'll be able to use it when i leave for a trip.
 
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CHT

New member
If you haven't, get a laptop cooler. That will keep your laptop cooler, and thus saving your laptop in general.
 
Genesis

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
I used to think the same. Like one has to drain the battery below at least 50% regularly so to keep it in good shape. But technology of batteries has changed so much. I'm beginning to think the manufacturers are designing batteries more for people who don't follow rules like that. Who like to keep their laptops on electricity for long periods of time. For them maybe they've grasped finally that it's not what the customer knows about batteries that matter, but how they use them and how they evaluate the batteries through their use. Like the particular brand of laptop would then get a better feedback.

I still follow the old principle though. I allow batteries to drain to around 30%, sometimes lower, before I charge them to 100%. I stop charging them when they've reached 100%.
 
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bigdaddy

New member
Genesis said:
I used to think the same. Like one has to drain the battery below at least 50% regularly so to keep it in good shape. But technology of batteries has changed so much. I'm beginning to think the manufacturers are designing batteries more for people who don't follow rules like that. Who like to keep their laptops on electricity for long periods of time. For them maybe they've grasped finally that it's not what the customer knows about batteries that matter, but how they use them and how they evaluate the batteries through their use. Like the particular brand of laptop would then get a better feedback.

I still follow the old principle though. I allow batteries to drain to around 30%, sometimes lower, before I charge them to 100%. I stop charging them when they've reached 100%.
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Yeah, I know what you mean,
I heard about the rule of ~30% to ~90% long ago :) and I think it's better approach.

my assumption and the reason I still use this approach is that the battery is actually chemically based, so some friends explained me about the battery structure (I remember nothing lol :))

I still think that putting the battery aside completely keeps it alive longer.

regarding the companies... read about printers and ink, some people say that these companies are designing their products in a way that they will stop working after a few years (or any other planned time) so you will their new product.
(i think there are also some reports that the Iphone becomes slower after some updates on purpose)
 
Genesis

Genesis

Administrator
Staff member
bigdaddy said:
I still think that putting the battery aside completely keeps it alive longer.
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I've never used this method, so now there's someone who does. How would it effect one's laptop if one removed the battery, and then added it back later? Would it boot up easy? Would that be good for phones too? Like just removing the battery if one doesn't use it for longer periods of time?
 
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bigdaddy

New member
Genesis said:
bigdaddy said:
I still think that putting the battery aside completely keeps it alive longer.
Click to expand...
I've never used this method, so now there's someone who does. How would it effect one's laptop if one removed the battery, and then added it back later? Would it boot up easy? Would that be good for phones too? Like just removing the battery if one doesn't use it for longer periods of time?
Click to expand...
 
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myserver99

New member
Well, if you leave your laptop plugged in while the battery is inside, it's not ok. You cant prevent that battery from dying, but you can slow the process. So everytime you are not using battery, pull it out and put it in the fridge (kidding, don't do that). You can put it near the laptop, and when you finish your work, put the battery inside again ;)
 
damonpolt

damonpolt

New member
Battery is the most important part in laptop. Once my laptop stayed without battery charge for a long time and then I'm can't use laptop more than two hours.
 
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