Laptop battery protection?

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i have a new Inspiron laptop and I have not been able to locate any data or statement qualifying whether it is harmful to leave the charger connected 24/7. ed
 
Absent of any dire warnings, I'd not worry about it.
 
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Best thing to do. Removing the battery (if applicable) would lead to letting it go down past it's discharge limit and be unusable.

Trickle charge is OK. Get your laptop off grid from time to time (I set a reminder once a month) till low battery warning to keep the calibration chip aware of what's going in there.
 
Newer laptops using lithium ion batteries (probably lithium ion polymer) have battery maintenance built into the hardware. They will cycle between allowing the battery to discharge 3-5%, then take them back to 100%, and monitor until it needs to cycle again.

All that to say, you are fine to leave it plugged in. It won't hurt it an won't damage your batteries as lithium batteries don't have cycle memories like older NiCad or NiMn.
 
Thank you SF0059, superflan and Leo99. Decided to leave it plugged in, except when leaving for the weekend or in a lighting storm. Ed
 
I don't know enough about the Inspiron lines, but many Latitude models have firmware settings that you can change to adjust charging thresholds. For example, you can have it charge up to 100% but then stop charging (with the charger still powering the computer) until the battery drops to 90%. That leaves the battery out of the charging loop for a few weeks even while plugged in 24/7.
 
I hate that all the manufacturers are going to non-removable batteries. My 8 year old machine is used a desktop replacement, and I never have the battery in it. Every few months I snap the battery in to condition it.

The downside is I lose everything if the power goes out.
 
I know that Apple advises that someone who uses their laptop as a desktop replacement run the battery down to 40% or so every few weeks just to keep the electrons moving around in the cells. Of course, that is Apple specific advice, but I see no reason why it wouldn't be generally applicable. Also, someone mentioned charging threshold-for a really long time Apple has set theirs at 95%, meaning that if you plug in the computer with the battery at 95% or higher it won't charge. In addition, I have a RAID card in my desktop with a Li-Ion battery, and once every three weeks or so it automatically discharges and recharges to "condition" the battery.

Someone above mentioned running without a battery. In general, for performance reasons, this is a bad idea. You will notice that laptops have MUCH less power on tap than desktops-a typical laptop charger is under 100W, while a low end desktop these days might have a 350W PSU. This is offset by more energy efficient components(mobile CPUs and GPUs, physically smaller HDDs or no moving media at all) but also remember that you have to drive the screen. Most modern processors can "turbo boost" for short periods of time under heavy load conditions. Laptops depend on being able to draw off the battery under these conditions. Without a battery that's at least somewhat functional, you can reduce performance under high demand situations and in some cases the computer will go ahead and downclock the CPU right off the bat. I've always found that at least newer computers run VERY poorly with missing or defective batteries.
 
Many manufacturers have a setting that will only charge the battery to what they consider the optimal charge. My Lenovo laptop charges to 60% and stops charging, the Toshiba goes to 80% and stops charging. This can be turned on or off as desired. Neither have removable batteries and remain plugged in all the time.
 
i run them down to 40-50% and take them out.
if i know i need it for mobile use i can top it up.
high state of charge and high temps together murder li-ion.
these newer laptops are disposable and biodegradable.
designed for early retirement.
built in battery=disposable junk.
 
Originally Posted By: kc8adu

built in battery=disposable junk.


Built in Apple batteries are rated to maintain 80% of their original capacity at 1000 charge cycles. This is much better than the rated battery lifetime of removable batteries. The battery in the computer from which I'm typing this has 360 cycles and is at 97% of specified original capacity. I was skeptical of non-removable batteries, but in the real world I've found them to live up to their longevity claims. Also, most can still be changed without too much trouble and the cost is similar to what you pay for quality removable batteries. Price an OEM battery from your computer maker or a quality 3rd party one(NewerTech comes to mind for Apple, I don't know about for PCs) and you're probably looking at $80 or better. Apple charges $130 to replace a built in battery including labor-the last removable batteries ran about $120 when they were still available(and NewerTech usually get $80-100 for those same batteries, whether removable or non-removable).

Also, I've had a lot more batteries(whether removable or built-in) ruined from sitting uncharged than sitting empty.
 
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