How do you extend the life of a laptop battery?

netadict

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The answer seems to be that there are no tried and true methods of extending the life of laptop batteries. After all someone has to keep the manufacturers in business. Some schools of thought on lifetime of batteries say keep them always charged or plugged into a charger.

Back in the olden days, the charge level of batteries (and life) would decrease if you did not completely discharge them occasionally. but the newer batteries seem to not obey that rule.

I keep my laptop plugged in all the time and have had at least 3 years of life in each of them.

But of course you have entered "how to extend battery life" in google???

Rich
 

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I have dos 6.22, wfwg 3.11, win98, 2000 and xp VHD's available for testing. MS's Virtual PC works great.
A friend here in W7Forum said for me to charge my battery fully.. then run it totall down..
re-charge it fully... then remove from my laptop , insert into a new freezer type plastic baggie..
securely close it, put in the Ref... every 3 or 4 months remove if from the Ref.. insert into my laptop .. run it down, go through the steps again, as above. So far this is working well for mine.
 

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I have no idea what all this actually means
Keeping it charged up will extend the life. Running the battery down often will shorten the life.
Also, it doesn't matter how you store the battery, it will eventually start to degrade significantly around 3 years after its manufacture.
 

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Thank you for all your replies

I was also under the impression that it was god for the battery to completely discharge it every now and then to prevent "memory" from happening.

Now I'm beginning to think "do what you want with it because you will have to replace it after 3 or 4 years anyways"
 

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Thank you for all your replies

I was also under the impression that it was god for the battery to completely discharge it every now and then to prevent "memory" from happening.

Now I'm beginning to think "do what you want with it because you will have to replace it after 3 or 4 years anyways"

3 or 4 years is pretty good anyway, but I know folks that end up replacing a battery after less than 2 years, sometimes much sooner.

Might want to check out that link I posted if you're really interested in prolonging the life of your lithium ion batteries. You may find that you replace the device long before ever having to replace the battery. I've got a laptop from 2005 and a handheld device from 2001 with original batteries, and both get decent runtime (although the 2001 device only gets about 50% original runtime, and it's now a kid's toy).

And by the way, the "memory" you refer to was correct for older nickel cadmium technology. You rarely find those nowadays though. Nickel metal hydride was much more resistant to that memory effect. But discharging degrades the heck out of lithium ion batteries. The only reason to ever allow it is if you want to recalibrate the "fuel gauge" (the reported time remaining or precent charge).

If the charging mechanism for the device/battery cannot properly recognize full charge, periodically trickling juice to "top off", don't practice leaving it on the charger much longer than necessary (they don't like high voltage either).

And remember that heat is one of the biggest killers.

All my opinion of course, but I've had good luck. I've only ever replaced one lithium ion battery. 7 years old. Lucky to get it super cheap ($3 instead of the original $60) otherwise that device would've been disposed of before it actually failed. Apparently they over manufactured that part number.
 
Last edited:

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F5ing.. thanks for the link and info. I'll keep the link for use when needed. Thanks:)
 

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•Fast Wi-Fi wireless and wired Gigabit Ethernet networking
•HDMI output
•Kensington lock slot
I have no idea what all this actually means

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link not found

:(i did not find any link here bro....:(
Thank you for all your replies

I was also under the impression that it was god for the battery to completely discharge it every now and then to prevent "memory" from happening.

Now I'm beginning to think "do what you want with it because you will have to replace it after 3 or 4 years anyways"

3 or 4 years is pretty good anyway, but I know folks that end up replacing a battery after less than 2 years, sometimes much sooner.

Might want to check out that link I posted if you're really interested in prolonging the life of your lithium ion batteries. You may find that you replace the device long before ever having to replace the battery. I've got a laptop from 2005 and a handheld device from 2001 with original batteries, and both get decent runtime (although the 2001 device only gets about 50% original runtime, and it's now a kid's toy).

And by the way, the "memory" you refer to was correct for older nickel cadmium technology. You rarely find those nowadays though. Nickel metal hydride was much more resistant to that memory effect. But discharging degrades the heck out of lithium ion batteries. The only reason to ever allow it is if you want to recalibrate the "fuel gauge" (the reported time remaining or precent charge).

If the charging mechanism for the device/battery cannot properly recognize full charge, periodically trickling juice to "top off", don't practice leaving it on the charger much longer than necessary (they don't like high voltage either).

And remember that heat is one of the biggest killers.

All my opinion of course, but I've had good luck. I've only ever replaced one lithium ion battery. 7 years old. Lucky to get it super cheap ($3 instead of the original $60) otherwise that device would've been disposed of before it actually failed. Apparently they over manufactured that part number.
 

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:(i did not find any link here bro....:(
Thank you for all your replies

I was also under the impression that it was god for the battery to completely discharge it every now and then to prevent "memory" from happening.

Now I'm beginning to think "do what you want with it because you will have to replace it after 3 or 4 years anyways"

3 or 4 years is pretty good anyway, but I know folks that end up replacing a battery after less than 2 years, sometimes much sooner.

Might want to check out that link I posted if you're really interested in prolonging the life of your lithium ion batteries. You may find that you replace the device long before ever having to replace the battery. I've got a laptop from 2005 and a handheld device from 2001 with original batteries, and both get decent runtime (although the 2001 device only gets about 50% original runtime, and it's now a kid's toy).

And by the way, the "memory" you refer to was correct for older nickel cadmium technology. You rarely find those nowadays though. Nickel metal hydride was much more resistant to that memory effect. But discharging degrades the heck out of lithium ion batteries. The only reason to ever allow it is if you want to recalibrate the "fuel gauge" (the reported time remaining or precent charge).

If the charging mechanism for the device/battery cannot properly recognize full charge, periodically trickling juice to "top off", don't practice leaving it on the charger much longer than necessary (they don't like high voltage either).

And remember that heat is one of the biggest killers.

All my opinion of course, but I've had good luck. I've only ever replaced one lithium ion battery. 7 years old. Lucky to get it super cheap ($3 instead of the original $60) otherwise that device would've been disposed of before it actually failed. Apparently they over manufactured that part number.

Post #3 (it was my prior post in this same thread): http://www.sevenforums.com/chillout...u-extend-life-laptop-battery.html#post1980713
 

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My Computer My Computer

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Windows 8 - 64-bit2.2GHz Intel Pentium dual-core B960 processor...8GB DDR3Intel HD Graphics with 128MB of dedicated sys...
Computer type
Laptop
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Gateway 17.3" LCD Intel Dual-Core, 8GB RAM 1TB HDD Windows 8 Laptop
OS
Windows 8 - 64-bit
CPU
2.2GHz Intel Pentium dual-core B960 processor with 2MB L3 ca
Memory
8GB DDR3
Graphics Card(s)
Intel HD Graphics with 128MB of dedicated system memory
Monitor(s) Displays
17.3" Ultrabright HD widescreen LED-backlit LCD
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1280 X 1024
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1TB hard drive-1000 GB HDD
DVD-Super Multi DL drive
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Intel B960 processor
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XXXXX
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XXXXX
Keyboard
Multi Gesture Touchpad
Mouse
USB - portable mouse... I added this
Antivirus
Avast
Browser
I E 10
Other Info
I see nothing about Motherboard info.
I'm not sure about Sound Card
Ports :(3) USB 2.0, (1) HDMI, (1) VGA, (1) Headphone out, (1) Microphone in, (1) Ethernet LAN

•Fast Wi-Fi wireless and wired Gigabit Ethernet networking
•HDMI output
•Kensington lock slot
I have no idea what all this actually means
IMO a laptop battery is a secondary power source.
When you can 'plug-in' and compute, do it. How about not draining it down just because you can. Alot of people don't shut down but let the laptop sleep/hibrinate, ok fine let it charge while that's going on. Is your laptop with you on the road for 15+ minutes at a time? - Get on Amazon search for "Car Adaptor [your laptop make/model]" and buy a 12v to 19.5v converter. They work for solar power as well.
 

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got it nw bro.
 

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