What's the normal life cycle of a laptop battery any idea?

Tao81

I run a HP laptop with original battery which when new would last for 2hrs off mains supply, now suddenly finding battery only lasting approx 35 minutes once off charge! :eek:

Is this to be expected? Do they suddenly start dying like this? Any ideas on where to buy the best priced replacement? Ta

macman

Every time you charge it, the run time decreases a bit. It's normal.
It might help to discharge it fully before you recharge it.

scotsbob

If running off mains then best to remove battery until such times as you actually need it.

Best place to buy replacement is most likely to be Ebay.

worto03

most laptop batteries seem to be next to useless around the 2 years mark.

oh & be careful buying dodgy cheap batteries

savemoney

We have had our Dell just over a 2 years its 9 cells and so far its fine, we normally use it in mains though and dont use it every day

Sparky47

All rechargeable batteries deteriorate over time.

You don't say how old the laptop is but in my experience good laptop batteries should last for 2 to 3 years.

Tao81

Laptop is 18 months old like the battery.
We usually run it on mains and ocassionally on battery and always use it until it goes to about 8-10% charge when the laptop will automatically power off and then we plug it in again.
Wasn't expecting it to last for ever, but did think it would last approx 2yrs before it began to lose it's will to live?!

Macman when you say fully discharging it may help, is leaving it until the stage where the laptop powers off to save data enough of a discharge, because we do this fairly regularly and that's why I was under the impression it should have lasted a little longer than it has!

Scotsbob - your suggestion of removing the battery whilst using laptop via mains, I remember hearing that from somewhere before but was told by a few computer buffs that this doesn't make much of a difference to the life of the battery, perhaps I should have listened to people such as you eh?!
Out of interest why in your opinion does this potentially extend the life of the battery and conversely why does leaving it the machine contribute to it's deterioration?

Worto03 thanks I will only buy genuine battery part but just fishing for any competitive sellers of these.

savemoney - glad to hear your battery is lasting, ours is a 9 cell and we usually use it on the mains but regularly run it on battery until little icon says it is low on charge and then we plug it in again, we do use it daily however.

BTW - can anyone give me a clue on how to cut and paste more than one reply into my reply message so that I can simply write a reply under each person who has kindly answered, as I only know how to get one quote into a message via clicking the quote button which brings up a reply message screen. How do others go back and collect more quotes and place them in the same reply box?!

isofa

I have a Mac G3 Powerbook which is 9-10 years old, holds a 45 to 60 min charge.

My 6 year old Dell Latitude P4 holds a 90 minute charge on normal use.

I've used both attached to the mains for 75% of their life.

scotsbob

Tao81 wrote: »

Scotsbob - your suggestion of removing the battery whilst using laptop via mains, I remember hearing that from somewhere before but was told by a few computer buffs that this doesn't make much of a difference to the life of the battery, perhaps I should have listened to people such as you eh?!
Out of interest why in your opinion does this potentially extend the life of the battery and conversely why does leaving it the machine contribute to it's deterioration?

What wears a battery out is the constant cycle of using/charging/using/charging by leaving it out and only putting it in when you actually need it you reduce the wear on the battery

Joe_Bloggs

The wikipedia article here seems to suggest that heat is a factor in the deterioration of maximum capacity with Lithium ion batteries. It may be worth taking the battery out if it is a simple process once it has charged and you are running of mains power. Leave the battery somewhere cool.
Deep discharge is not recommended.

More information from the Battery University web page here.
J_B.

Tao81

isofa wrote: »

I have a Mac G3 Powerbook which is 9-10 years old, holds a 45 to 60 min charge.

My 6 year old Dell Latitude P4 holds a 90 minute charge on normal use.

I've used both attached to the mains for 75% of their life.

Seems like I'm a bit unlucky then, because that's how we use ours but like I said it now refused to hold a charge for longer than a max of 40 mins! :eek: Perhaps HP batteries are not as good as Dell's?!