Leaving laptop constantly on and plugged in?

Grumpy_chap

Neil_Jones said:

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.

I am intrigued as to what else a laptop can do when the lid is closed.
Sleep 
Hibernate 
Shutdown
Nothing 
Screensaver 

What "something else" can there be?

400ixl

Leaving a laptop plugged in 24/7 has not been an issue for more than a decade now and is recommended over continuous charge and discharge cycles which wear the battery far more quickly and are more of a fire / expansion risk.

J_B

Frozen_up_north said:

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.

I have a Dell laptop running W10 so looked for this ......

Found Dell Power Manager in Programs - click

Up pops a message saying 'Software Update' and 'Download' - clicked 'download'

Windows Installer asks 'are you sure?' - yes - click

Next another pop up from W installer with loads of text, the only option being OK - click

Then, that's it! The message disappears and nothing from Dell is left on the screen.

I've tried several times but alas .... nothing

Any ideas?

HillStreetBlues

Grumpy_chap said:

Neil_Jones said:

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.

I am intrigued as to what else a laptop can do when the lid is closed.
Sleep 
Hibernate 
Shutdown
Nothing 
Screensaver 

What "something else" can there be?

Self destruct in 5 seconds?

Frozen_up_north

J_B said:

I have a Dell laptop running W10 so looked for this ......

Found Dell Power Manager in Programs - click

Up pops a message saying 'Software Update' and 'Download' - clicked 'download'

Windows Installer asks 'are you sure?' - yes - click

Next another pop up from W installer with loads of text, the only option being OK - click

Then, that's it! The message disappears and nothing from Dell is left on the screen.

I've tried several times but alas .... nothing

Any ideas?

Yes, run the program called "MyDell", the power management screen is in that program (who started calling programs "apps")

J_B

Frozen_up_north said:

Yes, run the program called "MyDell", the power management screen is in that program (who started calling programs "apps")

I don't have that - went to the MS Store ... can't find it ... google has found it!

Downloading now .... "it could take a few minutes - time to grab a coffee"

I don't drink coffee so looks like it won't work!

Got it now - it was set on 'always a/c' so have changed it to 'adaptive'

Any other pointers?

DullGreyGuy

Grumpy_chap said:

Neil_Jones said:

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.

I am intrigued as to what else a laptop can do when the lid is closed.
Sleep 
Hibernate 
Shutdown
Nothing 
Screensaver 

What "something else" can there be?

There is hybrid sleep, where the computer dumps its RAM to disc like it would before hibernating but then keeps systems in lower power mode rather than turning off. 

Certainly with Macs apps can be set to continue working in Sleep mode, like backup software or security software like FindMy

Frozen_up_north

J_B said:

Got it now - it was set on 'always a/c' so have changed it to 'adaptive'

Any other pointers?

I think adaptive charges to 100%, I use custom with no charging between 50% and 80% and max charge of 80%.

Newcad

My previous daily use Asus X551MA laptop sat on the coffee table plugged in 24/7 for the last 10 years with only the very ocassional unplugging from the mains. (eg I had to unplug it when moving house). It was always at 100% charged.
Originally it had a HDD and I had it set to shutdown when the lid was closed, after swapping the HDD to a SSD I set it to hibernate when the lid was closed.

I did last year run a manual battery test on it, letting it run down and recording the % left at 15 mins intervals, it performed as well as it did when new 10 years ago. (5 hrs constant use to drain to 5%, which 10 years ago wasn't bad for a laptop battery).

The laptop I'm currently typing on is a Lenovo Ideapad Slim 3i, just over a month old. It's also generally going to be plugged in 24/7.
Laptop manufacturers are aware that many people use laptops in preference to bulky desktop PCs, and that they leave them plugged in 24/7.
Lenovo has a 'Conservation Mode' for that, (in their 'Vantage' app), if you select it then when being used plugged in the laptop runs off the mains and keeps the battery at between 75%-80%.

bob2302

DullGreyGuy said:

Grumpy_chap said:

Neil_Jones said:

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.

I am intrigued as to what else a laptop can do when the lid is closed.
Sleep 
Hibernate 
Shutdown
Nothing 
Screensaver 

What "something else" can there be?

There is hybrid sleep, where the computer dumps its RAM to disc like it would before hibernating but then keeps systems in lower power mode rather than turning off. 

That's for desktops without battery backup - so they don't loose data in a power cut. It's pointless  and counter-productive on a laptop.