Laptop battery life

[GunsForBucks]

Got a new laptop and am using it at home.

Is it better to unplug it and use the battery? I don't want to ruin battery life by keeping it plugged in constantly if that is an issue.

Thanks for any replies!

[r.linder]

It's generally not the best idea to constantly charge it because overcharging can ruin it, but a lot of devices already have measures in place or have settings you can use to automatically stop charging when the device charges up to 80 percent.

[GunsForBucks]

Great I kind of figured it might be like that.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Unlike Phones and Tablets; you can't ruin the Laptop battery by having it plugged in 24/7

The motherboard has logic-switching that stops the wall power adapter from over-charging or topping off the battery constantly. This is also due to the fact that Laptops do not need a Battery to function. With Phones/Tablets this is the other way around where the primary power source is the battery and when plugged in, the power must run through the battery to reach the device.

If you not doing gaming or using demanding apps; then take the time to run off the battery, so it's actually getting used regularly.

Most Laptop batteries will start to decline in their overall life span capacity after approx 1 year anyways, regardless of whether or not you use it.

[GunsForBucks]

Unplugged it today and it ran fine until I loaded up kerbal... that chewed up the battery quick. Plugged it back in when I got a warning. Cheap machine low spec I was happy the game played at all ha ha.

Don't expect much life out of the battery but I don't plan on taking it out anyway. Just needed a word processor mostly. This machine is better but ready to die. So I didn't want to do anything important on it.

Thanks for the advice. I'll keep unplugging it and run the battery down just to cycle it properly.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

When you're outside of a game, the CPU typical runs at around 1/8 or 1/4 of the clock and doesn't use the turbo boost. And basically GPU is hardly ever used and if it is (like in your web browser) it's not taxing it much.

Also helps to configure the power options better and switch to Balanced or Max Performance when plugged into wall power. When on Battery, switch the power profile to Balanced or lower, to extend the battery.

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Diposting pertama kali oleh r.linder:

It's generally not the best idea to constantly charge it because overcharging can ruin it, but a lot of devices already have measures in place or have settings you can use to automatically stop charging when the device charges up to 80 percent.

This again is COMPLETELY FALSE INFORMATION (this user is well known for doing this).

Leaving your laptop plugged into AC power when playing games WILL NOT HARM THE BATTERY.

That's actually how you're supposed to use a laptop.

[r.linder]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Shaggin'Wagon:

Diposting pertama kali oleh r.linder:

It's generally not the best idea to constantly charge it because overcharging can ruin it, but a lot of devices already have measures in place or have settings you can use to automatically stop charging when the device charges up to 80 percent.

This again is COMPLETELY FALSE INFORMATION (this user is well known for doing this).

Leaving your laptop plugged into AC power when playing games WILL NOT HARM THE BATTERY.

That's actually how you're supposed to use a laptop.

Funny, because laptop manufacturers recommend against leaving it constantly plugged in because even though laptops are designed to stop charging the battery at 100%, you can significantly reduce the amount of cycles the battery has left due to heat and voltage, the last few percent takes the most amount of energy and it isn't even worth it because you can gain up to a year or potentially more of the battery's lifespan by limiting how much you're charging it.

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/how-long-should-i-charge-hp-laptop-battery

If you're going to leave a laptop plugged in all of the time, then you shouldn't be using a laptop, it would make more sense to get a desktop instead and get more performance per dollar The whole point of a laptop is the mobility

And I would advise against going around telling everyone who will listen that I'm supposedly known for misinformation, that's essentially defamation, trying to destroy someone else's reputation by spreading lies about them and trying to turn people against them.

[Andrius227]

If you are only using it at home then you can just remove the battery, if it is removable.

[Viking2121]

For modern stuff, its best to cycle the battery at least a little bit, but leaving on charge is not much of a problem anymore, they will stop charging after a point, still not ideal I guess according to some manuals which Im sure hasn't been updated since the 90s.

I use to be big in hobby grade RC trucks, and for long term storage, you really only charge them to half of their capacity, or you'll end up reducing the life span as a possibility, which is the same thing on most modern devices

But Lipo's in them RC trucks were also vulnerable at near full discharge or full charged, and when they lite off, its like a grease fire so, thats not really the case for Phones, laptops, they can handle it, but its not the best for the life of it.

Honestly with a laptop or cellphones, I've never bothered with charging to 80% or cycling the battery just because, when Im home on in my truck, phone goes on charge, well my s9 was crap on battery even new lol, I find by the time the battery life is gone at least on a phone, I'd have a new one anyway, and laptop batteries can be cheap, but hard to replace on most new stuff, so might be best to do as the manufacturer suggests.

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Diposting pertama kali oleh r.linder:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Shaggin'Wagon:

This again is COMPLETELY FALSE INFORMATION (this user is well known for doing this).

Leaving your laptop plugged into AC power when playing games WILL NOT HARM THE BATTERY.

That's actually how you're supposed to use a laptop.

Funny, because laptop manufacturers recommend against leaving it constantly plugged in because even though laptops are designed to stop charging the battery at 100%, you can significantly reduce the amount of cycles the battery has left due to heat and voltage, the last few percent takes the most amount of energy and it isn't even worth it because you can gain up to a year or potentially more of the battery's lifespan by limiting how much you're charging it.

https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/how-long-should-i-charge-hp-laptop-battery

If you're going to leave a laptop plugged in all of the time, then you shouldn't be using a laptop, it would make more sense to get a desktop instead and get more performance per dollar The whole point of a laptop is the mobility

So let's get this right: You're trying to tell someone that owns a laptop that they should occasionally unplug their computer, make it run on battery (which makes the gpu run much slower), only for the purpose of draining it then plugging it in again to charge it again? What if they want to sit in their room and play a game on it for 6 hours straight? Are they really supposed to unplug, re-plug, unplug, re-plug and make their computer run fast, slow, fast, slow while playing games? Is that what you're trying to say? Because it certainly seems like that's what you're trying to say. Do you even realize what it is that you are telling people to do? Or do you just copy-paste random things from google into the steam forums without any idea what they mean?

Diposting pertama kali oleh r.linder:

And I would advise against going around telling everyone who will listen that I'm supposedly known for misinformation, that's essentially defamation, trying to destroy someone else's reputation by spreading lies about them and trying to turn people against them.

If you don't want people saying that about you then maybe you should consider not writing technical information you know is wrong and false with the intent to purposefully mislead people. What you are trying to do is VERY BAD! This is not something to be making jokes of. These are actual people asking questions about their real hardware and you are actively trying to tell them to do wrong and harmful things with their computers on purpose for some reason. I don't know why you do this but you seem to enjoy doing it.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Lithium Battery types DO NOT NEED any kind of regular cycles in order to maintain it's battery % calibrations. That's been a myth for so long it's not even funny anymore.

[Guydodge]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Andrius227:

If you are only using it at home then you can just remove the battery, if it is removable.

this.

[GunsForBucks]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Guydodge:

Diposting pertama kali oleh Andrius227:

If you are only using it at home then you can just remove the battery, if it is removable.

this.

I will probably look into that at some point. Nothing obvious but four screws on the bottom but that is probably standard for the laptop design.

[Crawl]

You could also check to see if your laptop has an option to limit the battery charge. My last several laptops (all Asus) have had the option to limit the battery charge to 60% or 80%.

[CJM]

Diposting pertama kali oleh Shaggin'Wagon:

Diposting pertama kali oleh r.linder:

It's generally not the best idea to constantly charge it because overcharging can ruin it, but a lot of devices already have measures in place or have settings you can use to automatically stop charging when the device charges up to 80 percent.

This again is COMPLETELY FALSE INFORMATION (this user is well known for doing this).

Leaving your laptop plugged into AC power when playing games WILL NOT HARM THE BATTERY.

That's actually how you're supposed to use a laptop.

Different batteries perform differently. Older laptops used Nickel-Cadmium batteries, which were only functional for a limited number of charge cycles, but if they were not cycled fully they would build up a "memory" and uncycled portions of the battery would become static and unusable.

Lithium Ion batteries last longer when you do not cycle them. These newer batteries seem to lose their chemical balance at the extremes of their capacity. The best spot for a Lithium Ion battery is to sit at about 50%.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Bad 💀 Motha:

Lithium Battery types DO NOT NEED any kind of regular cycles in order to maintain it's battery % calibrations. That's been a myth for so long it's not even funny anymore.

It may be a myth for "Lithium Battery types", but it was once common sense for previous types of batteries and thus the advice did not start out as a myth.

Diposting pertama kali oleh Shaggin'Wagon:

Diposting pertama kali oleh r.linder:

If you're going to leave a laptop plugged in all of the time, then you shouldn't be using a laptop, it would make more sense to get a desktop instead and get more performance per dollar The whole point of a laptop is the mobility

So let's get this right: You're trying to tell someone that owns a laptop that they should occasionally unplug their computer, make it run on battery (which makes the gpu run much slower), only for the purpose of draining it then plugging it in again to charge it again? What if they want to sit in their room and play a game on it for 6 hours straight? Are they really supposed to unplug, re-plug, unplug, re-plug and make their computer run fast, slow, fast, slow while playing games? Is that what you're trying to say? Because it certainly seems like that's what you're trying to say. Do you even realize what it is that you are telling people to do? Or do you just copy-paste random things from google into the steam forums without any idea what they mean?

Pretty much. Lenovo laptops do have the ability to set a stopping point for the battery charge, say at 50%, so that you can leave it plugged in all of the time.

How To Geek has an article which seems to be accurate on the subject ("Debunking Battery Life Myths for Mobile Phones, Tablets, and Laptops"):

https://www.howtogeek.com/169669/debunking-battery-life-myths-for-mobile-phones-tablets-and-laptops/