Laptop Battery Life

wazza

I have a Compaq laptop which is about 18 months old. I have it plugged into mains at all times when the laptop is in use. Once a month i let the laptop run on battery till a low battery warning comes on then i plug the mains in. I have noticed that when i switch on the laptop the next day the battery is only 70% full.

I have not used the laptop for two days. When i switched it on i was surprised to see the battry life is only 30%.

Is it normal for a battery of this age to lose much of its charge overnight

asininity

If its plugged into the mains all the time that tends to happen, the batteries need to be in use and run down to get a fuller life out of them.

niceguyrichy

over the same kinda time period my compaqs' battery eventually stopped working altogether.
switch on, straight back off before xp even loaded.
seems to be one of those compromises of owning a handy laptop, you gotta buy a new battery every now and then... :rolleyes: (sucks if you ask me)

Arlen

There are companies that will re-cell your existing battery for about £75. They also put better longer lasting cells into it so it will last longer on a charge. A company that does this is MultiCell based in Broughton Astley in Leicestershire.

wazza

Thanks for the info. In the past i asked what is the best way to prolong the life of the laptop battery. Was adviced to use the mains at all times and to discharge the battery once a month or two.

What i plan to do now is to run off the battery and when it gets low on charge plug the mains in. Then when fully charged use the battery power etc etc and see if this improves the battery life.

Dont expect to see miracles but worth a try

Conor_3

It won't. You need to keep it running off the battery until it goes so flat it turns off. That's it turning off, not Windows shutting down because its down to 3% or whatever. You then charge it up for 15-16 hrs and repeat a few times.

Leopard

You've probably knackered this battery but if, as you write, you only and always use the laptop with mains power, that will not inconvenience you much.

If you decide to buy a new one, preserve it by taking care of it and mostly use the old one in your laptop because doing further harm to that one will be somewhat irrelevant.

It's a bad idea to run a laptop without a battery in it at all because most of them are designed to use the battery as part of the heat-disposal system. Moreover, things (including small insects) can get into many laptops if the battery bay is left empty. There's also the fact that doing this leaves live terminals exposed.