Laptop battery

[Amethyst]

DH and I are having this discussion, as we've had our Lenovo laptop for nearly 1 1/2 years and I've never let the battery get lower than about 30%. I usually run it plugged in, while he tends to unplug it and run it on battery. Today a new thing popped up that said something about the battery not being in good condition, that a new battery would run the laptop for 3 1/2 hours and as it stand now, this battery would only work for 2 1/2 hours. I've heard in the past about rechargeable devices, that you're supposed to let them run right down before you recharge them because the batteries have a memory, but I had understood that that was 'old school' thinking, that newer batteries these days don't require that anymore.

I've heard both re laptops, so who is right? Run it down all the way or not?

And would it help my laptop at this point to let that happen now, or is it time to just go get a new battery?

What's the normal life expectancy of laptop batteries anyway?

Thanks for any responses.

[Amethyst]

The laptop says the battery will only store 70% of the charge it could when it was new. Lenovo has this thing to reset the battery gauge, which is a procedure that fully charges the battery, then fully discharges it, then fully charges it again. That'll take a few hours I guess, so we'll see what happens there.

[ddeerrff]

Yes, reset the meter.

Lithium batteries do not suffer from memory (a NiCd phenomenon) and should not be deep discharged on a regular basis. Lithium batteries DO loose capacity with age, and a battery 3 - 5 years old is pretty much end of life whether it has heavily or lightly used.

In addition, heat accelerates the age related degradation. The cooler the battery is kept the longer it's lifetime. If you run it mostly from the line, removing the battery (keeping it away from the laptops heat) can prolong the batteries useful life.

[Amethyst]

Thanks for your response.

I ran the reset and it was several hours into it and the AC power supply got interrupted. The program that does the reset was quite insistent that that is not to happen during the reset. The connection of my AC adapter to the back of the laptop is a bit loose, I just found out today. (And that will be the subject of another thread!) I'm not so sure the gauge reset was properly completed, but I'll run it again another day. It was nearly 6 hours and I don't have that kind of time left in this day anyway.

What did get done increased my battery capacity from 70% to 84% anyway, so that's an improvement. I don't know if it would have done better had the AC power supply not been interrupted. It was recharging at about 25% when the power was interrupted and then after the power interruption, it was merely recharging, not resetting anymore according to what the computer said.

[exile360]

One thing I will say, if you're going to use it for long periods of time with it plugged in, remove the battery. That will put less wear on the battery itself. It's also generally better to charge the battery when the computer is turned off.

[Amethyst]

Hello Exile,

Didn't know that about it being better to charge the battery when the computer is off. DH likes to routinely unplug the laptop and run it on battery. I have been leaving it plugged in when I use it. (We have power outages here and I like to keep all the stuff fully charged. We wouldn't have internet with a power outage, but the laptop could at least be used to watch a movie or something if it was fully charged. )

[noknojon]

The laptop says the battery will only store 70% of the charge it could when it was new. Lenovo has this thing to reset the battery gauge, which is a procedure that fully charges the battery, then fully discharges it, then fully charges it again. That'll take a few hours I guess, so we'll see what happens there.

Hi Amethyst -

We also get this with a lot of newer battery powered tools in the building industry - Our only option is to send them to a 'recharge' person who performs this similar function - The claim is to extend the full life by about a year or 2 - It also seems to increase power for a while after the 'reset' -

I am never sure of them, but several others claim substancial improvement over their operating system -

Dewalt brand tools are notorious for this as they get a lot of use and we don't ever care for them as much as we should -

With cheaper versions it seems that they just have a short life, but the better ones can be reset for a small fee -

[Amethyst]

Hi noknojon,

Well, I got a bit of improvement, but the reset didn't complete properly. I mentioned in another thread that my AC adapter is not working correctly, and this was why the reset didn't finish--the AC power supply was interrupted. I'm waiting for a replacement adapter and then I'll try the reset again. I think there might be a broken wire or something in the AC adapter cord, as the cord has to be positioned 'just so' in order for the laptop to recharge, so I'm trying not to fuss with it too much at this point.