Aaron Konstam wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-07-27 at 10:50 -0500, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote:
>> With my Toshiba A105-S4004, they tell you not to leave it plugged in
>> after the battery is charged if you are not using it. But I am not
>> sure how much that has to do with heat, and how much it has to do
>> with battery life. I have a neighbor that used her laptop more as a
>> desktop, and left it plugged in all the time. Her battery life
>> dropped to nothing in about 2 years. (10 minutes from full charge to
>> dead.)
> It is my fault for making statements that are too global. It matters
> how old her laptop is.
> 1. If you have a metal hydride battery it can be probably plugged in all
> the time. On my laptop there is an ion that appears whenever the battery
> is charging. When the battery becomes fully charged the icon on the
> front goes off leading to believe it has a circuit that cuts off the
> charging when the battery is fully charged.
>
> 2. If you have an older machine with maybe a Ni Cd battery then the
> battery has a memory feature. If you let the battery get half discharged
> and then charge it will in the future be able to be discharged only to
> the half charged condition. I suspect that is what happened to the
> person you referred to.
>
Nope - it had a Li-ion battery. The battery circuit even thought it
had longer until the battery voltage dropped because it was almost
at end of charge. It couldn't seam to calibrate to the new
performance level when I let it discharge and recharge. Maybe
because the change was too drastic from the last time it was cycled.
> But is truth my statement was too sweeping. The behavior depends on the
> laptop and one needs to do what the manufacturer tells you needs to be
> done.
>
Well, I wouldn't consider the Toshiba that old - It is a core dual
machine with a Li-ion battery. It has a "light" that is yellow when
charging, and blue when charged. But they still warn against leaving
it plugged in when charged. They also recommend running a full
discharge/charge cycle every month:
❖ At least once a month, disconnect the computer from a
power source and operate it on battery power until the
battery pack fully discharges. Before doing so, follow the
steps below:
1 Turn off the computer’s power.
2 Disconnect the AC adapter and turn on the
computer’s power. If it does not turn on, go to step 4.
3 Operate the computer on battery power for five
minutes. If the battery pack has at least five minutes
of operating time, continue operating until the battery
pack is fully discharged. If the battery light flashes or
there is some other warning to indicate a low battery,
go to step 4.
4 Connect the AC adapter to the computer and the
power cord/cable to a power outlet. The DC-IN or
AC power-light should glow blue, and the battery
light should glow amber to indicate that the battery
pack is being charged. If the DC-IN or AC power-
light indicator does not glow, power is not being
supplied. Check the connections for the AC adapter
and power cord/cable.
5 Charge the battery pack until the battery light glows
blue.
❖ If you have extra battery packs, rotate their use.
❖ If you will not be using the system for an extended
period, more than one month, remove the battery pack.
❖ Disconnect the AC adapter when the battery is fully
charged. Overcharging makes the battery hot and
shortens its life.
❖ If you are not going to use the computer for more than
eight hours, disconnect the AC adapter.
❖ Store spare battery packs in a cool dry place out of direct
sunlight.
Mikkel
--
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons,
for thou art crunchy and taste good with Ketchup!
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