Need suggestions for battery care

[alexruiz]

Well, after almost 5 years and a half, my old and ever loyal eMachines M6805 finally got a replacement.

I just received the new machine, an HP Pavilion DV3z, very nicely configured. I will be working on a clean install during the weekend, but I have some questions about battery care.

The M6805 battery only lasts for 10 minutes. Yes, it is old, but I feel it should last a little more. In fact, I feel that I wasn't careful enough taking care of the battery. So I need the advice as to how take care of the battery properly with the new toy.

I got the DV3z with the standard 6 cell battery. In addition, I got the 9 cell battery, so I have 2 batteries. As most of the laptop users, the machine will spend most of the time plugged in. The times it will be on battery, however, it will be long periods away form an outlet (>6 hrs, hence the 2 batteries) I have read that once you are done for the day, the power adapter should be unplugged. I have also read that batteries that are not going to be used for long periods should be stored at aprox 40% state of charge. I have even read that the unused batteries should be stored in the freezer!

- I am assuming the "main" battery has to be the 6 cells, to minimize degradation to the bigger battery so that one is ready when needed. Is this assumption correct?

- How should I store the spare battery, room temp or freezer? 30% or 40%, or irrelevant as long as it is around those numbers?

- Should 10% charge be the minimum that I should allow the battery to discharge, even when draining it?

- Do I need to drain the battery often, and if so, how often?

I also have an additional notebook adapter from before, a Kensington 33197. It powers the new laptop fine, but I noticed something strange: The battery doesn't charge when plugged to this adapter The power icon in windows reports "Plugged in, NOT charging" even if the battery is not at 100% I am not sure if this is good or bad. My fist reaction was "bad" but I now somehow feel it is good for battery care. How good or bad is this?

Thanks



Alex

PS. By the way, thanks to the members of these forums. I don't think I have made a better computer related decision than to replace a laptop hard drive with the fastest one available (7200rpm in this case). The advice was given here on AnandTech. I think the 7K60 is the reason why the M6805 has lasted this long, and why it still feels potent and snappy for everyday use.... It even feels faster than many newer machines with much more impressive spec sheets 🙂

 

[mpilchfamily]

With all the different battery technoligies out therer ther are a differnt set of guidliness for battery care. The batteries themselfs should have came with documentation outlining the best way top care for them. Also the laptop should have came with similar documentation. A simple google search of the battery type you have should give you all the inforation you need.

If you power brick you have isn't the right one for the laptop then its no surprise that the battery isn't charging. The brick itself may be able to offer the laptop what it needs to run but not enough to charge the battery at the same time.

 

[IlllI]

i've read that if you have it plugged in most of the time then its best to remove the battery

 

[boomhower]

Most modern notebooks are smart enough not to charge a full battery. For the most part the memory problem has been resolved but for best life it is typically recommended to pretty much run them down before recharging. You only get so many uses so make them last.

 

[SickBeast]

Apparently if you used it plugged in most of the time you should remove the battery, as mentioned above.

Also, keep the battery charged to 40% or so if you're going to remove it and store it.

 

[TheStu]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
Apparently if you used it plugged in most of the time you should remove the battery, as mentioned above.

Also, keep the battery charged to 40% or so if you're going to remove it and store it.

Some laptops will not run the CPU at full speed unless the battery is in the system however. And as others have said, it is not 1999 anymore, you can leave the battery in all the time, either the battery, or the laptop (sometimes both) have circuitry that know when the battery is full and will stop charging it. In fact, it isn't uncommon for a laptop the slowly drain down from 100% to 95% or so while still plugged in since the circuit has prevented the battery from taking a charge from the mains.

However, USE THE BATTERY! You need to make sure that you actually sue the thing on a regular basis, unplug it and use it while making dinner, so you can look up recipe info, or watch YouTube, it really doesn't matter what, just use it until it gives you a low battery warning and then recharge it. This is known as calibrating the battery and will, if not extend the life of the battery, let the system know what the capacity is. My friend just had to buy a new battery for his MacBook Pro (just over 1 year old) since after just 37 cycles it was practically dead. He never used the battery so the cells 'went dormant'. Conversely, my mom has a MacBook with 290 or so cycles and still gets 4 or so hours of battery life, but then again she uses it on battery until it warns her, then she plugs it in to charge. She is constantly cycling and conditioning the battery.

I am somewhere in between and still get around 2.5 hours of life out of my battery and this is with screen brightness on max, wifi on, surfing the web/watching videos on the hard drive.