A family member has just aquired a new laptop - a Lenovo naturally.
How best to look after the new battery I wonder: keep the charger plugged in and on all the time it's in use at home or run the computer on battery alone and charge up only on the low battery warning.
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If it's anything like the laptop this is written on, it's not that simple. My Samsung has two screen brightness settings, full brightness on mains, dimmer on battery. True you can adjust it, both permanently or temporary.
I think modern batteries don't suffer from the memory effect that afflicted Nickel Cadmium cells, but which way lasts better/longer I could not say. However I've had a good life out of the batteries I've got and they don't show signs of dying, yet... (hurriedly touches wood).
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The Samsung laptops come with a utility called BatteryLifeExtender, which can be set to stop the battery charging once it reaches 80% charge level to prevent the battery life being shortened by repeated overcharging. Our company issues laptops to all staff whether field based or not, so many of them, mine included, spend all day most days plugged into the mains.
My 400B is over a year old now, but will still run happily for four hours unplugged.
Last edited by: DP on Thu 20 Sep 12 at 13:14
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I would say just use it. No point using it on mains just to save the battery, they die with age as well as use anyway.
As DP says, they manage themselves pretty well too. And by the time the battery is beyond use, the laptop will probably be due to be replaced anyway.
Our work laptops (was Dell, now Lenovo) go 4-5 years with the original batteries with some mains and some battery only usage and they seem fine.
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As someone (Mapmaker?) said about mobile phones, what's the point of having one and then not using its capabilities.
Just use it. You're not going to make enough difference to its battery to matter. And you can always buy a new battery two years form now if you wish as they deteriorate anyway.
I keep portable stuff plugged in so that its full charge when I want it to be. If that makes a difference to the battery life, which I doubt, then that's one of the prices of having portable equipment.
You buy stuff to use it.
I am reminded of my Grandmother who would never switch on her transistor radio in case the batteries ran out.
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The family member should read the documentation that came with the new Lenovo, where it is all explained in there.
RTFM
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Well you lot have made your point alright, but may I respectfully suggest a trifle light on the diplomacy front.
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oo, sorry. Unintentional. Well, unintentional on my part, dunno about Zero-the-liberal.
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My previous two work laptops would be plugged into the mains all the time. The battery life over say 3-4 years definitely deteriorate. I put it down to always being plugged in and therefore trickle charged.
The one before last in fact would last no more than 45min to an hour. And then when you tried to charge it, it would think it was full after a short charge.... I just put up with it until I got my next laptop. Only time I'd tend to use it on battery was whilst on a train and not being sat near a power socket.
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By the way, I assume that you do realise that No FM2R is a response to RTFM rather than agreement?
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Jeez! - I always wondered what No FM2R meant.
:-D
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>>I always wondered what No FM2R meant.
I am here merely to bring enlightenment Grasshopper.
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Poke us in the eyes more like...
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.**********
Last edited by: No FM2R on Thu 20 Sep 12 at 19:32
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>>I am here merely to bring enlightenment Grasshopper<<
One of my all-time faves! www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCyJRXvPNRo
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Running them plugged in all the time kills the battery. You could just remove it if you want to do that. Except for the Samsungs as already mentioned, with the battery life extender.
All my work laptops were left plugged in, none of them could do more than half an hour on battery after a year of that treatment. I didn't make the connection until I came across the Samsung utility.
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Its not unique to Samsung, most new laptops have utilities that stop charging when near full.
Its actually the heat that kills modern batteries, so most laptops have a temperature sensor in the battery and vary the charging rate and shut off by keeping the battery temperature down. Above about 37 degrees will shorten battery life.
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My iPhone when plugged into the car, with the screen on permanently running Traffic gets pretty hot. Is this normal?
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Yes - it will be drawing a lot of power to try and charge and also run the phone. The battery will warm up a bit when charging. When the phone is running something needing a fair amount of power the CPU will get hot.
How hot an iPhone can get I can't say. Is there a temperature somewhere in the About area of settings? I can get to see temperatures on Android.
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>> My iPhone when plugged into the car, with the screen on permanently running Traffic gets
>> pretty hot. Is this normal?
It will get hot, the backlight is on, its drawing power to battery charge, the CPU is working hard, and the sun is shining through the screen onto your nice black heat soaking device.
Depends how hot is hot, and yes it will shorten battery life
Edit. if it thinks its too hot it will tell you and shut features off till it cools down. There is no app to tell you the internal temp, as there is no API for the temperature sensor in the phone (which is just a threshold sensor anyway)
Last edited by: Zero on Sun 23 Sep 12 at 10:46
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The work laptop spends 99% of its time plugged into the docking station. First battery lasted all of six months and its been chewing them ever since.
Both the home laptops tend to be used on battery most of the time, charged up regularly and only sometimes used while plugged in. Both of them have batteries that are still as new.
Then again it could be just that my employers bought Dell machines and they are as rubbish at laptop batteries as they are at everything else they do......
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I have a socket in my office with a timer permanently plugged in, but with the output coming on for just one hour in the middle of the night. Plug in my BlackBerry Playbook most evenings, and it will be charged, and not over-charged, in the morning.
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How to treat a new battery - Slidingpillar
