[ltp] Laptop battery storage

[Mendel Cooper]

Again, possibly discussed before.


If you're not running your laptop on battery power, it's a good idea to
remove the battery and store it. That prolongs its life. It's recommende
that they be stored at about 50% charge (Why? I don't know.)>

Why? Because those wonderful "smart" LiON batteries only have a limited
number of charge cycles, something in the range of 200 - 300 or so. And,
there's an electronic counter inside the battery that keeps count and
irrevocably turns off the battery when the count is full up. Very clever.

Now, when you keep the battery inside the laptop, even running on AC all
the time, the battery charge trickles down a percent or two a week. And,
when the charge drops to 95% *, the BIOS senses this and recharges it
back to 100%. And, guess, what? That counts as one charge cycle. So,
in about a year and a half you can use up a brand spanking new battery
without ever actually using it. Very clever indeed.

   * In some older laptops, the recharging would start at 98%.

Sometimes, those "smart" gadgets are too damn smart for their own good.