how to best handle laptop batteries?

nightfrost · 2006-05-24 16:22:21

Last year I got a lovely little laptop that I've fallen in love with. I've been trying to treat it with love and care, but for some reason the battery's already showing signs of crappiness. It still has a pretty good life length, but when it indicates that it's got about 30 minutes left, it normally dies out in 10-15 minutes. This hasn't been the case before, so I just assumed from here on it's a slippery slope.

I managed to get hold of a new battery and now I want to handle this one with all the love and care that I ostensibly failed to handle my last battery with

How do you guys reckon I go about doing that? Should I let it be completely discharged the first few times before I charge it up? Or should I never let it be *completely* discharged? Is there anything else I can do to help its longevity? Do laptop batteries normally crap out after a year? Any suggestion is appreciated!

phrakture · 2006-05-24 17:07:12

If it's like most older batteries, they have a "memory" of sorts. If you discharge for 20 minutes, recharge to full, and do that over and over, it begins to think that 20 minutes is a full charge... but battery technology has come a long way, and yours might not suffer from that.

I would recommend you take a look at suspend2 (hibernate) stuff, to suspend to disk. I'd also say, if you're running off batteries, keep doing that until it's real low before charging it, unless it's important. It's hard to build battery memory anyway, so if you're sporadic about how long you charge it it should be fine.

codemac · 2006-05-24 18:42:52

The real question is, what type of battery to you have? All problems can be assessed when we know what you have.

And yes, a laptop battery will last 1-3 years in my experience.

elasticdog · 2006-05-24 19:20:01

I haven't checked in at this site in a while, but remember that it used to have a lot of great battery related info/advice: Battery University

nightfrost · 2006-05-25 00:53:17

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not sure how to find out what kind of battery it is really. The computer is a fujitsu-siemens lifebook p7010, which is a rather modern laptop. The batteries are 6-cell. I'm gonna checkout batteryuniversity.

Mostly, I'm curious about completely discharing batteries. I read somewhere that that wasn't good. But somewhere else I read that it was... so it's kinda confusing.

Edit: google makes me think the battery is lithium ion
Edit2: There's another thing I'm really curious about as well, which is linux related. I've ordered an external battery too, one of them that uses the modular bay. Under windows I've seen people switch between different modular bay devices, such as battery and DVD-player. They use this "remove hardware safely"-button and then remove the battery and insert the DVD-player. How do I go about doing that under linux? How do I safely remove the modular bay batter in order to insert my DVD player?

iphitus · 2006-05-25 01:19:28

There's a lot of things about about battery life.

I've just thrown caution to the wind with this laptop computer, and in it's third year of heavy use, it still has a bout 2 hours of charge, off what was originally about 3 hours, which imho, is pretty good after 2.5 years.

it's a lithium ion, with model 'bat 6cell' according to ACPI.

I've just used it however I've needed to use it, charging when charge is available, even leaving it on the charger for days and on one or two occasions, a week or two. I've managed to frequently give it a full cycle during my usage, which probably has helped.

I figure that you may as well use it as is comfortable, ensure it gets a full cycle once in a while, and you should be right. The battery is there to conveneience you, not hinder you to strict usage patterns to preserve it.

James

lanrat · 2006-05-25 10:59:53

@nithgfrost: Yes, you should fully charge and discharge your laptop batteries for the first 1-2 times and repeat this from time to time. This is called calibration. Battery university has a lot of detailed info about this here and here.

Arkamririon · 2006-05-25 12:47:55

I usually take out the battery when i don't need it.
Also a modern battery has no memory effect they only can charged a number of times. And because the laptop charges a battery even when its at 99% capacity i avoid this 1% charge cause of i take out the battery. (i know apple and ibm laptops that only charges the battery when they are below 95% (is this correct?))

With the extra battery, i don't know an answer. Ask this some days ago:
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?t=21693

lessthanjake · 2006-05-25 13:46:12

nightfrost wrote:

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not sure how to find out what kind of battery it is really. The computer is a fujitsu-siemens lifebook p7010, which is a rather modern laptop. The batteries are 6-cell. I'm gonna checkout batteryuniversity.
Mostly, I'm curious about completely discharing batteries. I read somewhere that that wasn't good. But somewhere else I read that it was... so it's kinda confusing.
Edit: google makes me think the battery is lithium ion
Edit2: There's another thing I'm really curious about as well, which is linux related. I've ordered an external battery too, one of them that uses the modular bay. Under windows I've seen people switch between different modular bay devices, such as battery and DVD-player. They use this "remove hardware safely"-button and then remove the battery and insert the DVD-player. How do I go about doing that under linux? How do I safely remove the modular bay batter in order to insert my DVD player?

I own a p7120 and have the second battery. Removing it and inserting the dvd-rw, does not seem to hurt anything. Switching back also works fine. Only problem is that the dvd-rw is not detected(reeboot needed), but maby you have more luck.

nightfrost · 2006-05-26 11:20:12

Thanks again for the replies. I'll be digesting everything over the nex few days.

Battery university was full of needful information!

Arch Linux

#1 2006-05-24 16:22:21

how to best handle laptop batteries?

#2 2006-05-24 17:07:12

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

#3 2006-05-24 18:42:52

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

#4 2006-05-24 19:20:01

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

#5 2006-05-25 00:53:17

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

#6 2006-05-25 01:19:28

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

#7 2006-05-25 10:59:53

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

#8 2006-05-25 12:47:55

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

#9 2006-05-25 13:46:12

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

#10 2006-05-26 11:20:12

Re: how to best handle laptop batteries?

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