Leaving laptop constantly on and plugged in?

PunkRoquefort

I unplug mine and switch it off after every use, but my mum always has hers on?

What do you do with yours?

400ixl

Setup to only charge to 80% and drops into standby when not being used.

Depends how often you use it I guess. Shutting it down if only used every few days may be worthwhile but if used daily / multiple times a day then that is a PITA.

EssexExile

I turn mine off at night but it's left on all day.

Neil_Jones

PunkRoquefort said:

I unplug mine and switch it off after every use, but my mum always has hers on?

What do you do with yours?

Like any battery if its left plugged in long enough constantly it will eventually end up expanding inside the laptop.

Suggest plugging in to charge up, then unplugging, running down and recharging.

Laptops are designed to be in use all day and most by default will go to sleep/standby when you shut the lid.  A full power off isn't really necessary these days, that's more for desktop computers

PHK

Neil_Jones said:

PunkRoquefort said:

I unplug mine and switch it off after every use, but my mum always has hers on?

What do you do with yours?

Like any battery if its left plugged in long enough constantly it will eventually end up expanding inside the laptop.

Suggest plugging in to charge up, then unplugging, running down and recharging.

Laptops are designed to be in use all day and most by default will go to sleep/standby when you shut the lid.  A full power off isn't really necessary these days, that's more for desktop computers

Modern laptops run Windows 10 or 11 are happy being left on. They'll manage the charge state to keep the battery in good shape. In fact, manually charging and discharging will damage the battery more 

Frozen_up_north

Many modern laptops can be configured to only charge the battery if it is below a customer set threshold and to normally only charge it to 80%. My Dell is set to 50% and 80%, as I type this it is running from the mains adapter but is not charging the battery. There is also a primarily AC setting too. These settings allow you to keep the battery in reasonable condition for as long as possible before needing to replace it.

Grumpy_chap

My laptop charging has been influenced of late by my electricity provider requesting that we shift demand away from 4 pm to 7 pm weekdays in return earning some free electricity on Sunday.  It means that I now have the laptop plugged in until 4 pm and then operate from battery until the end of the day.  No idea how that benefits or degrades the battery state of health

DullGreyGuy

Depends where I'm working... at the office the docking stations have a power supply so if you want to use the external monitors it becomes plugged in. 

When working from home then varies but generally keep it between 20%-80% charge. When working from a different location then run on battery which it can still comfortably do for well over a single working day.

Only time it gets turned off is when doing an OS update that requires a restart. 

Brie

Neil_Jones said:

Laptops are designed to be in use all day and most by default will go to sleep/standby when you shut the lid.  A full power off isn't really necessary these days, that's more for desktop computers

what about a laptop that does not shut down when the lid is shut?  Mine works with the lid shut.  I use a monitor and a keyboard and mouse.  On the other hand my work laptop does always shut down when I close the lid.  Even if it's plugged in to the same monitor/keyboard/mouse.  Not sure why there's a difference.  

MattMattMattUK

Brie said:

Neil_Jones said:

Laptops are designed to be in use all day and most by default will go to sleep/standby when you shut the lid.  A full power off isn't really necessary these days, that's more for desktop computers

what about a laptop that does not shut down when the lid is shut?  Mine works with the lid shut.  I use a monitor and a keyboard and mouse.  On the other hand my work laptop does always shut down when I close the lid.  Even if it's plugged in to the same monitor/keyboard/mouse.  Not sure why there's a difference.  

You can change the settings in Power, you can have either option.

Neil_Jones

Brie said:

Neil_Jones said:

Laptops are designed to be in use all day and most by default will go to sleep/standby when you shut the lid.  A full power off isn't really necessary these days, that's more for desktop computers

what about a laptop that does not shut down when the lid is shut?  Mine works with the lid shut.  I use a monitor and a keyboard and mouse.  On the other hand my work laptop does always shut down when I close the lid.  Even if it's plugged in to the same monitor/keyboard/mouse.  Not sure why there's a difference.  

Hence why I said "most laptops".

The default option in most non-corporate laptops is to go to sleep when you shut the lid down - a corporate laptop depends on IT.  Sometimes you can change them, though they may revert on the next reboot/log-in as the previous policies are pulled down.

On your own laptop you can do what you like - change the settings to sleep the laptop hibernate the laptop, shut down the laptop, do nothing... I dare say some third party software may let you do something else.