Battery charge management on Dell laptops?

[BearZDefect]

Lenovo's power management software supplied on their Thinkpads allows one to set battery charging thresholds. For example, instead of charging up to 100% whenever plugged in, I can ask it to charge only up to 80% and do not start changing again until it drops below 60%

I think such a scheme extends the useful life of the typical lithium ion battery used in laptop computers when the computer spends most of its life plugged into a power supply.

Is there such a utility for Dell laptops? Or one from a reputable third party? I haven't found one yet.

Thanks!

 

[Rand]

I dont have an answer but to the question you didnt ask. yes it prolongs the useful lifetime of li-ion batteries

I set mine to start below 80 and end at 89%

 

[greenaccord02]

No, I am not aware of such a system. I'm familiar with their latest models, up to the Lat 6410 and 5420, and there are only 'fast' and 'slow' charge options as I recall.

 

[JavierG]

Not that I am aware of. Samsung also has that capability. I set mine to 80% unless i will be using it for the weekend and will be without the power cord, in which case I will need all 7+ hours of it.

 

[SrDriver]

Below is a program that could help?

Link to Web Site

I normally run Linux so have not tried it. Looks like it will work for both Windows Vista and 7.

 

[BearZDefect]

Thank you for all the replies.

From what I read here:
http://en.battcursor.net/details.aspx

BattCursor does not have a feature to set charging thresholds.

It's hard to believe that after all these years nobody except Samsung has implemented this feature that IBM made so many years ago. Lenovo inherited it from IBM.

 

[BearZDefect]

Not to beat a dead horse here, but unsurprisingly, it appears that this battery charging threshold control needs to be built into the hardware and/or firmware of the laptop because...

I took out the hard disk, put in a spare, loaded Linux with no special battery charge control software, and it still follows the thresholds I had set using the Thinkpad power manager software in Windows.