Where do you use laptop on battery?

[strollin]

I realize that I'm in the minority here but I've personally never understood why people put so much emphasis on battery life in a laptop. I've owned about a dozen laptops over the years and probably only used all of them put together on battery for about 10 hours total. I can't think of anywhere I would take my laptop that there isn't a plug nearby and, if there's a plug, I will use it rather than the battery. When traveling in my RV, I use an inverter and on a plane, I use an adapter for power.

Anybody else out there feel the way I do?

 

[WiFi Ed]

At the kitchen table on weekday mornings, about 20 minutes a pop. I plug in the charger on Sunday night so I'm ready to go for another week.

 

[pebbly]

once a week i let my lappys run on batteries till they die ,it pays in the long run to have at least a monthly charge/discharge cycle

 

[mitchell65]

once a week i let my lappys run on batteries till they die ,it pays in the long run to have at least a monthly charge/discharge cycle

It also pays to sometimes go into the setup screen before windows boots up and leave it until the screen fades away to nothing. Then you know the battery is full discharged. When Windows shuts down through lack of battery power it will still have about 8% charge left. It never goes down completely.

 

[Vegas]

When traveling in my RV, I use an inverter and on a plane, I use an adapter for power.

Must be nice to fly first class!
Back in coach we don't get power outlets, so the only place I use the battery is on a plane.

 

[Kari]

I use battery almost daily. I see no reason why I should take the charger always with me.

 

[mickey megabyte]

I use battery almost daily. I see no reason why I should take the charger always with me.

+1

my laptop has wireless networking, so i don't need to plug it in to a router to get online.

my laptop also has a battery, so i don't need to plug it in to the wall to get power.

having a laptop without a battery is a bit like having a mobile phone permanently plugged into the charger.

also i often travel across the country by train, and sadly in the uk, the power sockets aren't always on, nor easily accessible.

 

[pparks1]

I have a docking station at work for my laptop and I have to take it home with me every night in case I have to login remotely. I always run on battery at home at night. My Dell E6400 usually lasts a solid 5+ hours on battery....so that handles everything I need at home during the evenings.

 

[RyanC119]

College campus. Classrooms don't always have power outlets, and if they do, they are not conveniently placed. Also, a big power cord is a pain to lug around all day in a backpack full of books. Two-hour battery life turns out to be pretty useless...

 

[antharr]

I use the battery when I am too lazy to plug it in when just checking email. If I ever need battery life for any reason I will pick up a $150 to $200 netbook.

 

[antharr]

College campus. Classrooms don't always have power outlets, and if they do, they are not conveniently placed. Also, a big power cord is a pain to lug around all day in a backpack full of books. Two-hour battery life turns out to be pretty useless...

I can see your point.

 

[strollin]

I can see where the battery would be useful at school. Portable computers were pretty much non-existent when I was in college so I didn't have that experience. I have 4 kids in college right now and 3 of them have netbooks they carry around.

 

[CarlTR6]

I use the battery at various WiFi hot spots when I travel. I use it on the plane now and then.

 

[Sbrideau]

I use the battery mostly when I'm too lazy to plug the laptop on the power outlet. Or when there isn't a plug nearby (yes, there are places where the outlets are rare). I like having chosen a higher quality laptop since my battery still lasts almost as long as when it was new (it's now around 2 years old). And it's very rare I do that battery cycle, but I do it sometimes to preserve it's life. I find that doing it too often is as bad as never doing it.

 

[mitchell65]

I posted the the item regarding the running down of a battery using the Setup page because I know a number of members in the little computer group that I run that have bought laptops instead of a desktop system purely to save space or just so that they can be packed out of the way when not in use. This is fine but most of these members use the laptop as a desktop in so far as they switch on in the morning and it is running all day. I have had numerous problems with the machines suddenly shutting down without warning and invariably this has turned out to be an overheating problem.
I now advise laptop users in this category to every now and again use a compressed air can through the side ports to blow out as much dust as possible, to run with the battery out all the time and just charge it up about once a month. To tand the laptop up on a wire cake stand (The open mesh sort) This gives a good airflow under the machine and helps to keep it cool. This seems to work OK as I haven't had nearly so many calls due to overheating.
N.B. Remove cakes from stand prior to using for the laptop

 

[kucing13]

when i'm far from any socket for plug in

 

[strollin]

Clogged air vents can definitely become a problem. I have a 7 yr old Fujitsu laptop that my wife uses to play Solitaire and very light web surfing that started freezing up due to overheating. I disassembled it and found the CPU heatsink caked with lint and dust. Cleaned that out and the thing runs great again. The battery in this laptop died years ago but we have always used it plugged in so don't care. About the only use I have for the battery in a laptop is to power the thing long enough to move to another room in the house where it would get plugged back in! The battery in this laptop can still do that but not much more.

 

[Zepher]

I use battery most of the time and plug it in when it needs charging.

 

[Zepher]

I now advise laptop users in this category to every now and again use a compressed air can through the side ports to blow out as much dust as possible, to run with the battery out all the time and just charge it up about once a month. To tand the laptop up on a wire cake stand (The open mesh sort) This gives a good airflow under the machine and helps to keep it cool. This seems to work OK as I haven't had nearly so many calls due to overheating.
N.B. Remove cakes from stand prior to using for the laptop

You should avoid completely discharging a Lithium Ion battery since it can damage it.
There are circuits built into devices to shut them down when the battery gets too low, as to avoid it from discharging completely.

 

[kucing13]

If you want to use the charger,pull the battery out unless you want to charge the battery