leaving battery in while plugged in?

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rvlmtfnk · #1 Post by **rvlmtfnk** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:44 am

is it bad to leave the battery attached to the computer after it's fully charged, while my t43 is plugged in to an ac outlet? will it "overcharge" and affect future batery life?

i brought this up because when i turned mine on today(i got it two days ago), the battery bar said 98% instead of the 99% it showed yesterday, so I got freaked out.

aki · #2 Post by **aki** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:20 am

I never leave the AC and battery in the same time. either i charge the battery full while the laptop is off or use the AC but remove the battery. i left the battery once on my old thinkpad. it ran AC but i was lazy to remove the battery. afer a year the battery was almost dead.

I decided to test the R40e and hey...the battery was still fresh after 1year.

. now i do the same thing with my t40p

LtTPfan · #3 Post by **LtTPfan** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:27 am

To keep from overcharging and damaging the battery, Thinkpads stop charging once 100% has been reached, then will not recharge until the battery gets below 95%. So to answer your question, you can safely leave your battery in while connected to the AC adapter without fear of damage. You can read about this in "tips and tricks" which I believe is found in the Maximized program. You can also test this for yourself by unplugging and allowing your battery to discharge to say 96% then plug it back in. You'll notice no charging occurs. Then discharge below 95% and plug back in.

Website · #4 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:37 am

Actually, depending on the machine (such as my T23), it will charge even when it is above 95%. However, it is more of a trickle charge. In about a day or two, it will slowly make its way up to 100%.

LtTPfan · #5 Post by **LtTPfan** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 9:46 am

tfflivemb2 wrote:Actually, depending on the machine (such as my T23), it will charge even when it is above 95%. However, it is more of a trickle charge. In about a day or two, it will slowly make its way up to 100%.

Do you have the latest Maximizer program installed? My 770s used to do that but don't since installing the latest.

Website · #6 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:01 am

LtTPfan wrote:
tfflivemb2 wrote:Actually, depending on the machine (such as my T23), it will charge even when it is above 95%. However, it is more of a trickle charge. In about a day or two, it will slowly make its way up to 100%.
Do you have the latest Maximizer program installed? My 770s used to do that but don't since installing the latest.

I have version 1.38, and it indicates that it is the latest version, when I used the software installer.

rvlmtfnk · #7 Post by **rvlmtfnk** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:26 am

well, i have a T43. do you guys think there is any chance of what the first guy said about a dead battery after a year occuring because of leaving the battery in? he mentioned that this occurred on an old thinkpad. would the new ones be alright? i have the 9cell if it matters.

LtTPfan · #8 Post by **LtTPfan** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:29 am

rvlmtfnk wrote:well, i have a T43. do you guys think there is any chance of what the first guy said about a dead battery after a year occuring because of leaving the battery in? he mentioned that this occurred on an old thinkpad. would the new ones be alright? i have the 9cell if it matters.

I've experienced the opposite of what aki did, i.e. I had a working battery and left it out for several months, and when I put it back in it no longer worked.

Website · #9 Post by **tfflivemb2** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 10:32 am

Personally, I think that as long as your AC adapter is the right type (ie. 56 or 72watts) you should be ok. However, if you decide to remove it and store it, then use the recommendations from IBM:

8. When you store your battery outside of your ThinkPad Computer, store it with a charge of less than 50% to reduce the battery wear.

krma-thkpds · #10 Post by **krma-thkpds** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:10 am

Everything about batteries and more on http://batteryuniversity.com/.

davidspalding · #11 Post by **davidspalding** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 1:57 pm

rvlmtfnk ... get to know the "Battery Information" tab of hte Power manager. You can see when your batts are above a certain level, charging stops. Can configure this in the Battery maintenance area off "Battery Information," and you can also do a discharge/charge maneuver which sets the "time remaining" gauge. It's not a bad idea to do this after you've used your new TP for a couple of months.

ANY good laptop worth its salt will stop charging, or provide trickle charge, once internal batteries are charged up. This is a basic thing with LiIon batteries.

dr_st · #12 Post by **dr_st** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:14 pm

davidspalding wrote:ANY good laptop worth its salt will stop charging, or provide trickle charge, once internal batteries are charged up. This is a basic thing with LiIon batteries.

That's true. I have this Compaq Evo laptop. 3.5 years old. Working on AC 95% of the time, battery hasn't been removed from laptop even once. Battery still works perfectly and gives 3+ hours of battery time.

#13 Post by **bill bolton** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:20 pm

rvlmtfnk wrote:do you guys think there is any chance of what the first guy said about a dead battery after a year occuring because of leaving the battery in?

None at all.

Cheers,

Bill

aki · #14 Post by **aki** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 5:45 pm

LtTPfan wrote:
rvlmtfnk wrote:well, i have a T43. do you guys think there is any chance of what the first guy said about a dead battery after a year occuring because of leaving the battery in? he mentioned that this occurred on an old thinkpad. would the new ones be alright? i have the 9cell if it matters.
I've experienced the opposite of what aki did, i.e. I had a working battery and left it out for several months, and when I put it back in it no longer worked.

Once and a while, i do put the battery in and run it until the laptop dies. when it is dead, i connect the AC and let it charge to full, then remove it and use AC only. You can't leave a battery for months and think it will be ok, right? all i know is if you don't use the battery often (like 5times/year) you should charge in time to time to keep the battery fresh.

not only the laptop but you can do this kind work even on DV-camera, digitalcamera etc. if you leave the battery for 1year and don't charge it once and a while....well you have a dead battery too

christopher_wolf · #15 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:30 pm

Run it until the Laptop is dead? Or do you mean a deep discharge? It isn't advisable to do that to LiIon Batteries. Also, I know what you mean about a doing a full cycle for the battery charge; but LiIon Batteries are best stored at 45%-50% of full charge and don't have a "Memory" to get flushed.

aki · #16 Post by **aki** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:40 pm

until it die means yes, deep discharge. just start the windows and use it. my battery tells me how many cycles (i have now 9) so it must have some kind "memory" right?

christopher_wolf · #17 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 8:43 pm

No; not LiIon batteries...This is actually harmful for them as it increases wear . You can use NHC to view the Wear Level Percentage of the Battery.

http://batteryuniversity.com/

and

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Battery

davidspalding · #18 Post by **davidspalding** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 2:20 am

aki wrote:until it die means yes, deep discharge. just start the windows and use it. my battery tells me how many cycles (i have now 9) so it must have some kind "memory" right?

Nope, the IBM batteries count how many total cycles a battery has. Helpful if you buy a used one. But the "number of cycles" isn't the same as how many times you've used it and then charged it.

Frankly, rather than run it down and charge it, I would just slip it in from time to time, use it for a week or two, then remove it. If you want to "conditiion" it, the Power Manager software that's on mine can do that pretty well. YMMV.

aki · #19 Post by **aki** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 4:44 am

yeah... i have a full charge battery and use it sometimes so it's not i discharge it once i use it. only when i think the battery is too low then i deep discharge it.

when i bought this t40p, the info told me the battery was bad condition (red color) so i deep discharge it. now i get the yellow color

a friend of mine have t41 and i asked him how he use the battery, he told me same like you guys, let it in the machine all time. now the battery won't hold 4hours but only 2 maybe. that should be something...

dr_st · #20 Post by **dr_st** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 5:27 am

davidspalding wrote:If you want to "conditiion" it, the Power Manager software that's on mine can do that pretty well. YMMV.

And what does reconditioning do, besides discharging and then charging the battery?

ttan98 · #21 Post by **ttan98** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 9:08 am

I have a T22, I use this way I am getting good milleage from it, ie, after 136 cycles, about 1.5years, it still retain about 80% capacity of its original charge, ie 3500mAhr.

1. When I use with AC I leave the battery in.
2. When I take the laptop out-doors, it sometimes discharge to about 50-80% level, depending on situation. I will connect it to the main when I return home/office and then charge it to full. If it is below 50% I try to discharge it to below 3% before charge it up again to full, ie 100%.
3. If the battery does not drop below 50% for a while( after a few weeks) I tend to use without the mains till the battery drops to below 3% and then charge it to full again. It will reach to 100% fully charged even now.

Hope this helps...

davidspalding · #22 Post by **davidspalding** » Sat Jan 07, 2006 10:08 am

dr_st wrote:
davidspalding wrote:If you want to "conditiion" it, the Power Manager software that's on mine can do that pretty well. YMMV.
And what does reconditioning do, besides discharging and then charging the battery?

According to the Help info, Power Manager also reconfigures the metrics, or something, that estimate "time remaining." That is, besides fully discharging and then charging up the battery, it fine-tunes the gauge software itself. So that "two hours remaining" really means two hours.

In Power manager Help, check the 'Tips for maximizing battery lifespan' topic. Several useful topics linked from there.

kai920 · #23 Post by **kai920** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:09 pm

Is it okay to NOT have the battery installed, if my work day is spent entirely next to an AC outlet?

davidspalding · #24 Post by **davidspalding** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:29 pm

It probably doesnt hurt ... until there's a brownout. We've had several at my office, and having a laptop beats a desktop (without UPS) every time.

kai920 · #25 Post by **kai920** » Thu Jun 29, 2006 9:59 pm

davidspalding wrote:It probably doesnt hurt ... until there's a brownout. We've had several at my office, and having a laptop beats a desktop (without UPS) every time.

heh! I suppose that is a legitimate worry... the threat of a brownout didn't occur to me!

#26 Post by **daeojkim** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 11:11 pm

I would not recommend using the notebook without a battery while using AC. Not for the battery's sake but for the protection of your computer.

If for some case there is a black out of some sort then suddendly power is cut off it can damage your computer, especially the HD if it is heavily accessing. This can also lead to file corruption.

The least you should do is to get a worn battery and use it while using AC.

kimsn · #27 Post by **kimsn** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 7:04 am

I will never remove battery from my laptop, it is my backup power if something happen to AC power during my work which it cost much more than battery cost.
My 3year+ T-40 still working fine with battery that only 50% of original capavity.

Just my personal opinion

kai920 · #28 Post by **kai920** » Sun Jul 02, 2006 9:12 am

Thanks for the tips. This will be the last time I run my laptop without a battery...

leaving battery in while plugged in?

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