fire_storm Posted May 27, 2009 Posted May 27, 2009 Well I just had to order a new laptop battery for my Dell E1705 because the current one know only gives my laptop about 5-10 minutes of power. I understand that after a while laptop battery's do wear out from use but the problem is that I never really used the battery maybe only discharged it 30-40 times (not fully and not at regular intervals) over the past 2 1/2 years I have had it. And I have heard typical Lithium-ion battery's can go through 300-400 discharge cycles. I always use to leave it plugged in and never used the battery unless I had to. Know I want to extend this new battery for as long as possible because I don't intend to buy another battery for this laptop due to its age. I've looked at some tips online but a lot of them seem to contradictory some suggest discharging the battery every couple of weeks while others say you should always leave it charged up all the time. I'm not sure whats correct does anyone have any tips to extending battery longevity? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrewr05 Posted May 27, 2009 Posted May 27, 2009 Theres your problem, you let it sit at 100% for extended periods of time. My father killed 2 laptops batteries in about 2 years by using his laptop as a 2nd PC at the house and never discharging it. He always left it plugged in and killed the original battery and then bought a new one an killed that one the same way. Neither would hold a charge, it was as if the battery wasn't even plugged int... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reagnon Posted May 28, 2009 Posted May 28, 2009 (edited) You should charge the battery fully and than use it until it is empty. this realy helps extending the life of the batery. if you want to stay on ac power when the battery is charged you should remove the batery. I use this method with my eee it has 6h of batterylife (with wifi on) and i try to keep it that way. Edited May 28, 2009 by Reagnon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kash Posted May 28, 2009 Posted May 28, 2009 You need to calibrate your battery on a regular basis to keep it well conditioned. To do this, you have to first completely drain the battery, and I mean completely drain, to the point where the computer shuts down. Then you simply leave it on the charger; do NOT turn on the computer until it has been fully charged. It's probably best to do this right before you go to sleep. The reason you need to calibrate your battery is because batteries are stupid. They tend to forget over time how much of a charge they can physically hold, and as the saying goes, use it or lose it; so over a period of non-use, a good portion of the battery essentially becomes useless. As long as you do this once every month or so, your battery should last a long time. I've been doing this with my Macbook's battery and after two and a half years, it still holds a significant charge (started out at 4-5 hours, can still do 3.5 - 4 hours) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fire_storm Posted May 28, 2009 Posted May 28, 2009 I think I got the gist of it know. I'll just charge and then discharge the battery fully when I get it to calibrate it and then just discharge the battery to 20%-30% once a month to keep it working. I don't know if its true or not but I've heard that fully discharging Lithium-ion battery's puts a strain on them and shortens its battery life overall. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reagnon Posted May 28, 2009 Posted May 28, 2009 (edited) T hat will work fine! you can let it decharge until windows gives a message About that full discharge: abselutely wrong it will stretch the battery life! Edited May 28, 2009 by Reagnon Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kash Posted May 28, 2009 Posted May 28, 2009 I think I got the gist of it know. I'll just charge and then discharge the battery fully when I get it to calibrate it and then just discharge the battery to 20%-30% once a month to keep it working. I don't know if its true or not but I've heard that fully discharging Lithium-ion battery's puts a strain on them and shortens its battery life overall. Yes, you don't want to completely drain it too often, that can put a bit of a strain on the internal components. However, your plan sounds great. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
fire_storm Posted May 28, 2009 Posted May 28, 2009 Well the new battery came in earlier today in the mail. So I opened it put it into the laptop and tried using it and ran into some problems. First when I put it in and started the computer (with the AC power adapter plugged in) the computer be came very slow and laggy and kept jamming up couldn't even log in so I turned the laptop over and look at the battery and some of the diagnostic lights are lit. There were five lights and Light 1 was on Light 2 was off Light 3 was on Light 4 was on Light 5 was off and they stayed on as long as the laptop was plugged in. Left the battery in for about an hour and tried starting it again but the battery didn't gain any charge. So I turned off the computer and remove the battery and powered on the computer and it worked fine again. I have no idea what the diagnostic lights mean because there is no documentation that I have found on them. The Bios says it cannot communicate with this battery. I don't think I ordered the wrong battery because it fit right in the slot and the website I bought it from said it works with the Inspiron 9400/E1705. http://usbphoneworld.com/d5318.html Well I guess I got to wait another 3 weeks for another one. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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