Battery Question: To leave in or take out?

[imported_Krypto]

Thanks wisdomtooth for helping me out with my first problem. Now I would like to know something about the battery of my laptop. I use it mainly for a desktop, I was wondering if it's a good idea to take the battery out when I'm connected to the AC all the time or if I should take the battery out, and if I should should I leave it fully charged or empty?

 

[wisdomtooth]

What you have done is enable the NUMERIC KEYPAD on your Thinpad's keyboard.

Look closely at those keys-- They got numbers on them too.

It's in your Thinkpad 600 manual on how to get in and out of the numeric keypad mode... But as a courtesy to a fellow Thinkpad owner I'll just tell you:

To get in and out of the numeric keypad mode, hold down SHIFT and press NUM LK.

C'mon, you are a Thinkpad owner. Think!

 

[imported_Krypto]

Ahha, yeah that worked, well I thought I had tried everything but I guess not. I didn't have my manual handy, in fact I don't know where it is, but that worked. I thought the thinkpads were suppose to think for us haha, anyways, thanks for the help.

 

[wisdomtooth]

To answer your battery question:

to prolong its life, it's better to leave it out when not in use, at less than 40% charge. That will save wear and tear on it.

HTH!

 

[funggorgor]

take the battery out to extend its life
otherwise it should die after a year

 

[cy7878]

I disagree with the advices above. Leave the battery in!! Just make sure to plug it in BEFORE you turn the unit on to avoid discharge/recharge cycles. If you leave the battery in and unit plug, it doesn't actually shorten the life because you didn't use up a cycle. Most battery are good for about 1000 cycles before they will go bad.

Additionally, Li-Ion battery needs to be stored fully charged, and the battery will naturally lose charge overtime, so periodically you will need to charge the battery or it will no longer hold charge.

Older laptops actually need the battery install to "buffer" electrical spikes. Newer ones tend not to have that problem.

 

[Marynik007]

Originally posted by: cy7878
Older laptops actually need the battery install to "buffer" electrical spikes. Newer ones tend not to have that problem.

I agree the battery will act like an elctronic Buffer or so I remember learning before

 

[Conroy9]

well, it'll work as a power backup to buffer brownouts and blackouts anyway

after all the contradicting articles i read about how to maintain lion batteries, this is my experience - I always leave the battery in my inspiron 8000 that i bought in feb 2000, and on a recent trip, I was using it in an airport for an hour and a half and the battery was still at over 50%. I was using wireless and firefox only, but I was very surprised it lasted that long.

I rarely let the battery go below 10%, and i unplug it for up to 15 minutes fairly often. I use the laptop every day, at least 9-10 hours at work, and i've been putting it in standby to bring it home at night.

 

[imported_Krypto]

Thanks for the answers, I think I am going to leave it in, because I live in an older house and we get a few power failures.

 

[Stark]

Originally posted by: funggorgor
take the battery out to extend its life
otherwise it should die after a year