Battery-life

[SiteCharts.com]

I have a Laptop that I use mostly at work and at home.
Usually I don't run it on battery but rather have it plugged in and charging.
About once every two days I take care to almost deplete the battery and then plug it in again. (I don't really need the battery when I'm at home or at work and I rarely use the Laptop somewhere else.)
Now this could be my imagination but I think it ran about 1 1/2 hours on battery when I got the Laptop about a year ago and now it runs about 1 hour.

Now I would like to know if a Lion-Battery is somehow damaged if used like this.

Also I would like to know if it is harmfull for the AC-transformer to be plugged in if there is no device attached to it or the device is off (printer, mobile etc. they all have a transformer to recharge the battery)

[nilknarf]

Li-Ion batteries do eventually wear out, just like any other battery. It all dpends on how they were used and under what conditions.

In most modern laptops, once the battery is charged, it stops charging until the battery loses a certain amount of charge.

The AC adapter (transformer or solid-state) should'nt be affected by no load operation. It will still draw some power, and therefore run warm, even w/o load. But, this should not cause any problems.

Tim

[SiteCharts.com]

Cool thanks for the info!
But what is better?
Always run on battery and only plug in when the battery is almost empty or leave it plugged in?

[deltaf508]

You wouldn't by chance have a Sony Vaio Laptop would you??? I could get about 1 1/2 hours out of mine when I first bought it, and now It seems like I'm only getting an hour. I hardly ever run it on the battery alone, so I know my battery is not worn out. hmmmmmmm.

I'm wondering the same thing...

Anyone have any Ideas...

Gary

[Richard_Cranium72]

Rechargeable batteries die for several reasons.

One common mistake is to plug them in on some regular basis.
Batteries only have a fixed number of charge "cycles"

Ni-Cads are reputed to have about 1,000 charge cycles.

My Li-Ion battery for my Fuji is supposed to only take 300.

You obviously know about a battery building "memory" and the need to deplete prior to charging.
This is not valid with a Lithium-Ion.

They do NOT build a memory, you can charge them anytime without discharging with no ill effects.

A couple of battery tips.

Cool the battery to 40-65F prior to charge.
Cool immediately after charging.
Store fully charged batters in a cool spot, like the vegetable bin of the Fridge.

Clean the contact area and the surrounding area with soap and water on a damp cloth.
This removes any "Outgassing" that leads to "tracking" which will discharge the battery.

Your battery is getting a bit tired, use it till it pukes.

DrVette

[SiteCharts.com]

Your battery is getting a bit tired, use it till it pukes.

LOL! I will do that!

@deltaf508: Nope, I got a noname brand Laptop. Seems like this is a common occurence with Laptop batteries.

I will use my current battery till it dies and then move to a stronger and better one.
(my current has something like 3600mAh and there are batteries that have 7000mAH. With a battery like that my Laptop should run fine for 2-3 hours.)

It just occured to me that my battery seemed to have lasted longer once and I thought it better to ask.
I will check if my Laptop runs without battery when it is plugged in (that way I wouldn't always recharge it automatically).
I will tell you how/if it works...
...yep it works. I'm now running on AC-Plugged in and the battery gets a rest ;-)

[This message has been edited by SiteCharts.com (edited 04-25-2001).]

[djurom]

I think that your laptop should bypass battery depleting automatically when pluged into AC. I've had Compaq Armada for few months and every time after battery was recharged it would go on AC. I tried to take battery out when it was working and all was fine.