[kwlug-disc] OT: Laptop battery life

[Jason Locklin]

The battery is li-ion, not NiMH. The life cycle of li-ion batteries do degrade with frequent deep discharging (and frequent full charges -though that can't really be avoided). The degree of damage from "trickle charging" is going do depend on the charging circuitry. Frequent small charges to less than full is actually ideal, if not very practical. 

On November 24, 2015 11:20:31 AM EST, "B.S." <bs27975 at yahoo.ca> wrote:
>Are you draining the battery all the way down before charging?
>
>Are you leaving AC plugged in at all times unless otherwise
>unavoidable? I see contradictory opinions regarding such trickle
>charging.
>
>NiMH is not supposed to have memory, but in practice appears to. So
>reconditioning is supposed to help - complete drain, complete charge,
>complete drain. Or something. There is/was even a utility in the
>repository to assist this. (Can't find it at the moment.)
>
>Myself, I try to do anything I can to not use the battery. For most of
>my use cases to date, I only need to be on battery for at most 3 hours
>at any given point, e.g. Library. Otherwise, even at Tim's or in a
>meeting room, I'll hook up the AC - I even carry a 2 prong extension
>cord to facilitate that. And my working assumption is that laptops are
>AC powered only, the batteries being so expensive and in essence
>useless.
>
>$60 for a battery is just silly. Unavoidable, but nevertheless. Never
>mind most laptops won't power up on AC without the battery - but at
>least it can be a completely dead battery.
>
>Perhaps my good experience buying UPS batteries will be true for you
>here - http://batterywholesale.ca/ on Lawrence does batteries much
>cheaper than places like Canada Computers. Perhaps they can order
>something for you? He's responsive on e-mail.
>
>>________________________________
>> From: Khalid Baheyeldin <kb at 2bits.com>
>>To: KWLUG discussion <kwlug-disc at kwlug.org> 
>>Sent: Tuesday, November 24, 2015 10:15 AM
>>Subject: [kwlug-disc] OT: Laptop battery life
>> 
>>
>>
>>Since this laptop is an older model (BIOS says March 2009), I had to
>replace the battery on it quite a few times.
>>
>>What I do is go to Canada Computers web site, and check the laptop
>model and get the battery that matches, opting for the larger capacity
>one. The cost is reasonable at $60 for the 6600 mAH version (regular
>one is 4400 mAH).
>>
>>The problem is, while the initial ones lasted for 2.5 to 3 years, the
>newer ones do not last that long. Perhaps 1.5 years or so.
>>
>>So, the questions are: 
>>- Did anyone experience such short battery life, specially in
>aftermarket batteries? 
>>- Can the battery be rebuilt, rather than buying a new one with the
>old one not having a future in being properly recycled?
>>
>>Additional info:
>>
>>Here is: /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/info 
>>present:                 yes
>>design capacity:         6600 mAh
>>last full capacity:      663 mAh
>>battery technology:      rechargeable
>>design voltage:          10800 mV
>>design capacity warning: 0 mAh
>>design capacity low:     0 mAh
>>cycle count:              0
>>capacity granularity 1:  0 mAh
>>capacity granularity 2:  663 mAh
>>model number:            PA3534U-1BAS
>>serial number:           0001
>>battery type:            Li-ion
>>OEM info:                
>>
>>And here is: /proc/acpi/battery/BAT0/state 
>>present:                 yes
>>capacity state:          ok
>>charging state:          charging
>>present rate:            448 mA
>>remaining capacity:      637 mAh
>>present voltage:         10800 mV
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>kwlug-disc mailing list
>kwlug-disc at kwlug.org
>http://kwlug.org/mailman/listinfo/kwlug-disc_kwlug.org

-- 
Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.