Re: best protocol for carging a Laptop Battery

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"M.I.5¾" <no.one@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"JohnO" <johno@!NOOSPAM!heathkit.com> wrote in message
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"Rahul" <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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I just bought a new LiIon Laptop battery for my Dell Inspirion E1505
(dual
boot WinXP and Fedora).

I gave it my initial 10 hour charge. Now what? I started using it but
should I continue using it till the battery is drained and then
recharge?
Or should I only drain it partially? If it is not drained fully how will
the Laptop learn (callibrate) itself to what the new capacity is?

Or is it recommended that I only partially discharge it? What's best for
the battery life?

Another point: How many times should I cycle it this way? In the long
term
should I always wait for a full discharge; or can I charge it up from a
partially-discharged state or does it not matter?

I've gogled this but recieve conflicting advice.

--
Rahul

What was good for Nicad and NiMH is not good for Li-Ion. That first
discharge/charge cycle trains the charging circuits, it doesn't do
anything good for the battery.

Beyond that, keep it charged,

Why? I often hear this but when this advise is trotted out, the adviser
doesn't actually know the answer. It's rubbish of course.

don't run it to zero if you dont have to.

Why? Same as last answer. There is no evidence that fully discharging a
battery does it any harm. Overdischarging is dangerous, but the monitor
circuits won't let you get even close to this condition.

Recharging them from zero often (usually) results in heating up. Maybe with
proper airflow and an open design a full discharge/recharge regimen isn't
any issue, but in a real-world portable device it definitely matters.
Smaller recharges equal less heat. Your advice about removing the pack when
on AC kinda plays into that. Plus a lot of charging systems are stupid.




Don't let it get hot, that's a key factor. Li-Ions hate heat. I think
there was a discussion about this here a month or so ago...google
"battery" in this group.


Correct.

I have good luck with laptop batteries by keeping them plugged in nearly
all the time,

Bad idea, unless you have one of the few laptops that doesn't have any
heat producing parts near the battery.

I've been through a lot of laptops in the past 15 years, and my Li-Ion packs
always last a long time. And that's the way I treat them. <shrug>

-John O


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Relevant Pages

  • Re: High-capacity NiMH cells -- very rapid self-discharge common?
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    (rec.photo.digital)
  • Re: High-capacity NiMH cells -- very rapid self-discharge common?
    ... discharge is. ... still charge to 1.35-4, it could be the camera, but Sanyo, Panasonic, ... and the battery packs came already made up, ... (Common NiMHs, 2000 mAh, not Eneloops). ...
    (rec.photo.digital)
  • Re: charging a fully discharged car lead acid battery
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    (sci.electronics.repair)
  • Re: Shutdown my Laptop? Why should I?
    ... The end effect may be similar in terms of degraded performance, ... to completely discharge these batteries on occasion to avoid this. ... The integrated circuits may get out of sync with the battery (usually when the ... Now the battery will charge, ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: Shutdown my Laptop? Why should I?
    ... memory, they just lose capacity each time they're charged. ... the material 'remembers' it's charged state and won't discharge. ... The integrated circuits may get out of sync with the battery (usually when ... Now the battery will charge, ...
    (Debian-User)