Should you Use Power whenever available?

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abrogard · #1 Post by **abrogard** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 5:54 am

Should I use the mains power whenever available for my T23 (I think it is) or is it better to let the batteries run down before plugging into the power (and thereby, it seems, inevitably commencing a recharge) ?

regards,

ab

nrj45 · #2 Post by **nrj45** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:28 am

The best way is to spare loading cycle... So you should charge the battery :
- when you know you will have to work on batteries
- when the batteries are low

I don't know for the t23 but the t43p's power manager let you choose when you want to load batteries or just want to work without the battery to be loading.

Greg Gebhardt · #3 Post by **Greg Gebhardt** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:29 am

abrogard wrote:Should I use the mains power whenever available for my T23 (I think it is) or is it better to let the batteries run down before plugging into the power (and thereby, it seems, inevitably commencing a recharge) ?

regards,

ab

I use AC when ever available for increased performance. In fact about 90% of my laptop use is on ac. With L-ion batteries, you charge any time. Best to not run the batteries to dead before chargong. No matter what you do, your battery will lose capability with time. I think it best just to use and enjoy your laptop, if you got to buy a new battery in a year or so, thats part of having a computer you can use anywhere.

I have never owned a laptop long enough to experience the battery going bad.

kgorilla · #4 Post by **kgorilla** » Sat Oct 22, 2005 7:55 am

My T43 on the way will be my 3rd notebook PC.

Call it superstitous, but I always run my batteries full to dead the first 5-6 times.. Then don't really worry about it, but make sure it gets down to 10% or so once every 6 weeks..

http://www.cellpower.com/battery_tips.cfm

abrogard · #5 Post by **abrogard** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 4:55 pm

Thanks for the responses, guys. I searched a little further through the thinkpad material and found a place where it cautions not to recharge the batteries when they are over 90% !!

I read this as meaning don't use on the mains once the batteries are fully charged. i.e. don't remain on the mains once they've charged up.

Don't even put it on the mains if they are at >90%.

I'm going to search for where I can control the charge function by software now.

Oh - and it's a thinkpad T22. I finally found where it's written.

And that means PIII at 200Mhz to my shocked surprise. I always thought it was about .7G - no wonder LOS Vietnam won't run.

Kenn · #6 Post by **Kenn** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 7:29 pm

abrogard wrote:Thanks for the responses, guys. I searched a little further through the thinkpad material and found a place where it cautions not to recharge the batteries when they are over 90% !!

I read this as meaning don't use on the mains once the batteries are fully charged. i.e. don't remain on the mains once they've charged up.

That's not true. You can and should be on AC if you can - otherwise you're just going to end up using up the finite cycles a Li-ion can recharge. Whether you should continually "top off" is contested, but the default Power Manager/Battery Maximiser allows you to set thresholds for when you should start and stop charging the battery based on percentage.

Laptops nowadays have sophisticated circuitry controlling the charging process - a battery at 90+% will trickle-charge until 100%, at which point the charger will go flat - 0 watts to charge. You can see this with a tool like mobilemeter (http://www.geocities.co.jp/SiliconValle ... mm0310.zip). I believe the "no charge past 90%" advice goes mainly towards older battery and charging systems where there is a real danger of over-charging.

pae77 · #7 Post by **pae77** » Sun Oct 23, 2005 8:20 pm

Kenn wrote:. . . the default Power Manager/Battery Maximiser allows you to set thresholds for when you should start and stop charging the battery based on percentage. . . .

I know this is true for our T42's but I don't think the T2x and T3x series have this feature in their software, but someone please correct me if I am wrong.

kaiser · #8 Post by **kaiser** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 12:54 am

pae77 wrote:I know this is true for our T42's but I don't think the T2x and T3x series have this feature in their software, but someone please correct me if I am wrong.

I have read that the Availability of custom charge limits is dependant from hardware components. And AFAIR the T42 was the first with the user editable circuitry.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

AIX · #9 Post by **AIX** » Mon Oct 24, 2005 2:11 am

I'm afraid you're right; I can't change charge thresholds on my T41.

abrogard · #10 Post by **abrogard** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:56 pm

So I cannot change thresholds on my T22? ( Which the vendor tells me is a 900Mhz machine and it is the built in win2K system analysis prog that cannot understand a machine of such blinding speed and erroneously reports it as 200Mhz... phew...)

Then the warning I found seems pointless especially if I take the advice to be on the mains whenever possible (which instinctively seems the obvious thing).

What's the consensus of you all? Go mains at every opportunity?

lfeagan · #11 Post by **lfeagan** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 12:23 am

I tend to be out and about daily, so I usually don't go to mains unless I am going to be sitting somewhere for a while. I have now been doing this with my notebook (t42p) for 1 year and have yet to see any really noticable battery life degredation. The only real "no no" with a Li-Ion battery is not to dump it entirely (eg. discharge to less than 3%). The good news with a Li-Ion is running it for 30 minutes, then charging, etc... isn't really a problem for the batteries. Just do whatever makes you feel comfortable. I know that the first years of my laptop ownership (760ED) I worried about things like battery a lot more. I know that on one of my previous laptops (an HP...ugh) I also had to worry because of its incredibly lame battery life. With a 9-cell battery in the machine + a spare 6-cell in my bag and adaptive CPU speed on, I have finally been able to escape ever considering battery life. Just do whatever works for you. In the end, isn't the goal to have computers adapt to the way humans work--not the other way around?

aabram · #12 Post by **aabram** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:50 am

I used to worry about battery usage too but nowadays I just relax and use the laptop the way I want to. When I don't have the main power I run my battery to the very limit, when I have the mains, I use it all the time. I need new battery sooner or later anyway and I figure it isn't worth worrying too much about. I prefer not to have any strict discipline about charging even if it would save me month or two time before replacing the battery.

But yes, when there are mains available and I have adapter nearby I'll plug it in.

Greg Gebhardt · #13 Post by **Greg Gebhardt** » Sun Oct 30, 2005 7:40 am

aabram wrote:I used to worry about battery usage too but nowadays I just relax and use the laptop the way I want to. When I don't have the main power I run my battery to the very limit, when I have the mains, I use it all the time. I need new battery sooner or later anyway and I figure it isn't worth worrying too much about. I prefer not to have any strict discipline about charging even if it would save me month or two time before replacing the battery.

But yes, when there are mains available and I have adapter nearby I'll plug it in.

You hit the nail on the head!!

So many here worry so much about preserving the battery they ruin their Thinkpad experience. Just use you laptop and enjoy it. If you need a new battery is a couple of years, buy one. These laptops are not lifelong investments but are using how you want where you want. This is why you bought it in the first place.

For the cost of a battery which willo degrade over time no matter what you do, do not allow it to govern you habits.

Should you Use Power whenever available?

Should you Use Power whenever available?

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