To mains on laptop, or not?

debitcardmayhem

londonTiger wrote: »

An entire hour!! OMG

It probably only lasted 2 hours when new ,it's an Acer:D

Samsonite1

As far as I know, modern adaptive power supplies do not charge the battery when full. In fact, on my laptop it often says "not charging" when nearly full even with mains plugged in. So I would not worry about having it plugged in.

What I do is change the power profile of the laptop so that it behaves differently when plugged in. The most important things being to not hibernate or go into suspend mode if you leave it on when plugged in. Completely down to what you use the laptop for though.

Probably the most useful setting to have is to not suspend the laptop when closing the lid with power plugged in.

Strider590

Just to confuse ya'll even more, lithium batteries is most devices will never charge to 100% actual capacity, the device may show 100%, but in real terms its more like 85-90%.
Lithium based batteries do not like being stored at 100% charge, it's as bad for them as fully discharging a car battery.

Jivesinger

Just to add one more conflicting answer...;) I often take the battery out altogether and run from mains only. So it is neither charging nor discharging. (I know this isn't possible with all laptops though.)

lynnejk

Another conflicting thought is that it's cheaper to run on mains than to keep recharging the battery

molerat

My Samsung has a Battery Life Extender mode which only charges to 80%. It is 4.5 years old, on mains for about 14 hours a day every day and the battery shows as 25% worn.

almillar

Plenty of out of date advice - you need to know what chemistry is in your battery, you treat them all differently.
Lithium Ion batteries don't like being stored for long periods of time full, or empty, but somewhere in between. Charging and discharging is also 'wear' on them - they can only do so many. Keeping it full (or what your computer is telling you is full, it may reserve some, for the above reasons) and running off the mains is fine, IMO, and using it on the battery when necessary. Letting it discharge once per month, say, might be a good idea, so that the computer, and you, know where empty is.

Neil49

My 2 year old Lenovo has an Energy Manager feature which maintains the battery at 65% when plugged into the mains. I run it on this most of the time as I have a power connection close by.

Aura

I'm not running it on the mains at the moment and only charge it up at night now. Does this matter?

teddysmum

After having the battery in my last laptop wear out, on buying a new Medion,I emailed tech to ask for advise.


I was told to follow the handbook's instructions for the first few uses and thereafter, either use on battery until nearly empty (ie don't keep on topping up), then use on mains while it charges or if mains use is preferred, take out the battery (but this is difficult as my battery cover is very awkward to remove).


The man also advised not leaving on charge, once the charging light goes off.


My battery is nearly four years old now , but only keeps about 30 minutes' worth of charge. This doesn't bother me, as I rarely need portability.