[Nottingham] Laptop battery lifecycle

[Hussein Jodiyawalla]

Alex Tibbles wrote:

> what is the accepted wisdom for using Li Ion batteries best?

A very useful tip to make batteries last is to charge them when they are 
off.  Obviously you can't do this all the time, but for example, if you 
are using a laptop in the evening, wait until its almost flat, shutdown 
and plug it in.  This works well on laptops that I've had (Sony Vaio 
505E w/BP54, Dell Latitude CPx w/duel 75YUF's, Sony Vaio R600MX w/std 
battery... all Li-Ion).  For example, my current Vaio R600MX lasts about 
2 hours if it is charged to 100% while being on (overnight) while it 
will do 3+ hours easily if its charged to 100% when off  (also overnight).

Another thing to note is that this also works with mobile phones.  My 
Nokia 6310i (with standard Li-Polymer battery) will do about 4 days with 
my usage if it is charged overnight while it is on.  If it is charged 
overnight while it is off, it will do *almost double* that, and last for 
a whole week!  This was also the case with my previous phones Ericsson 
T10 (Ni-Mh), T28 (Li-Ion), Nokia 8210 (Li-Ion).

Of course there are lots of times when you want to use a laptop so can't 
always charge when its off, especially if yours has a couple of week 
uptime like mine, but you can't always have your cake and eat it.

James Gibbon wrote:

>There's no need to perform an initial long conditioning charge either.
>
I think there is - every laptop and mobile phone I have had says you 
should charge for a long time before the first usage, as does the latest 
gear.


Hussein Jodiyawalla

-- 
http://www.mightymouse.net/