Laptop Users Primarily On AC Power

[hans007]

the battery will die if you do that or get ruined. my work laptop i left in a docking station (they issued it to me and i almost never go to off site meetings) and after about a year and a half the battery woul dhave problems.

it would say drain from 100% to 60% then randomly power off. so yeah it does ruin the battery cells, id' recommend you not leave it in. if you just keep the battery in a box or something it will last a really long time at room temp, as the chemicals in the battery will not lose their ability to cause the reaction that produces electricity if there is no power draw.

 

[MotionMan]

the battery will die if you do that or get ruined. my work laptop i left in a docking station (they issued it to me and i almost never go to off site meetings) and after about a year and a half the battery woul dhave problems.

it would say drain from 100% to 60% then randomly power off. so yeah it does ruin the battery cells, id' recommend you not leave it in. if you just keep the battery in a box or something it will last a really long time at room temp, as the chemicals in the battery will not lose their ability to cause the reaction that produces electricity if there is no power draw.

I did not have that issue at all. I guess the answer is YMWV.

MotionMan

 

[Brainonska511]

No. I've left the battery in my machine continuously for years.

 

[Muse]

No. I've left the battery in my machine continuously for years.

Is it worth a damn?

 

[Brainonska511]

Is it worth a damn?

If you mean to ask if the battery is still good - after almost 4 years, I get 1-1.5 hours on the battery (~4-4.5 hours when I first got it).

 

[corkyg]

this defeats the whole purpose of a laptop...
sell your laptop and buy a desktop for half the price with twice the performance.

That doesn't make any sense at all. The laptop is for travel, especially abroad. That happens a few times a year. In the meantime, it sits there and gets sync'd every few days to keep it current.

Furthermore, I have two batteries - 6 cell and 9 cell. The 6 cell is for day-to-day use mainly as a UPS. The 9 cell is for trips.

Been doing this since 1965 with no battery problems - never had to replace one.

BTW - I also have 2 desktops for domestic use. 🙂

 

[AznAnarchy99]

After having 2 batteries die after a short lifetime with 2 separate laptops, I always keep it out unless I dont have a plug.

 

[jvroig]

Been doing this since 1965 with no battery problems - never had to replace one.

I'm sorry, could you clarify? 1965? Or perhaps you meant 1995?


As a regular laptop user myself, I have never once bothered to remove the battery. It depends on the quality of the battery itself, I guess. This laptop I am using now is 3.5 years old, and the battery is pretty much useless now (used to be ~2 hrs). My dad also has the very same laptop, his battery is also dead. They are both cheap laptops. But my HP pavilion that is even a year older (~4.5 years to date) still has life in the old battery, 1 hour at least. When I first got it, the battery gave me ~2.5hrs.

My newest laptop is an MSI Wind netbook that came with a 6-cell battery. 4.5 hours in Windows, 3:45 in Linux. It's almost exactly 1 year old now, and the battery is still pretty good at 3:25 in Linux. Battery meter says the battery is still at 90% of its rated capacity, so it has only deteriorated by 10% after a year of use.

I would estimate that 80-90% of the time, I am always plugged in. The only times I am not are during meetings/presentations, and when I'm working or browsing in a restaurant/fast food chain.

What I hate are battery prices here. I'm amazed that some of you quote $80 for a spare battery. It is very fortunate then if that is the standard price of spare laptop batteries in the US. I am not so lucky in that regard, as here, it is almost always twice that price. What I could get for more or less $80 would be to have the battery repacked.