My old laptop (now deceased) had a battery life of about 2 minutes when it was fully charged, (and my charger was like a cripple. Actually, cripplemight even be too nice, in coma might be a better way to describe my charger…it would only charger if the cord was resting at a certain angle; move it and it died.) 2 minutes may sound horrible, but let me tell you, 2 minutes is a plenty of time to pick up your laptop and charger and find another outlet. Plus you have one less worry than those with battery lives of 2-3 hours…you never had to worry (like I do now), "OH CRAP 5% battery life left! AHHH gotta find a plug in before my computer shuts down on me!"
Anyways, ever since my laptop died and I got a new one, my favorite part has been the convenience of super long battery life…like how I can watch a movie without having to sit next to an outlet w/my super short cord. In other words, I'm obsessed with keeping my battery life as high as possible for as long as possible.
I've done tons of research on whether you should keep your laptop plugged in after the battery's fully charged, when should you charge it, the number of charge cycles, etc. And, so I've been charging my battery til it's full (not 99%, but til it says fully charged—I think it makes a huge diff) and removing my charger to let it drain all the way to 5-10% before I charge it again—and never charging it from like 48% (which I used to do b/c it'd be at like 50% and I'd need/want to go somewhere and use it for a long time). So far, so good…except that I read online that most batteries should last for about 300 charge cycles before they start slowly dying on you…considering the amount of time that Princeton and this internship have required me to spend on my laptop, I'm pretty sure I'm quite close to 300, if not already way beyond it, and it's only been 6 months or so. -_-
BUT here's the good news! Yesterday, my aunt left her laptop on the bed after she finished watching Sherlock holmes (awesome movie btw) and I picked it up and noticed that there was a huge gap in the back of her laptop…apparently, whenever she can plug in her laptop, she just plugs it in and removes the battery so it's not continually charging. Ahh, I cant believe I never knew about this! I love love love this idea so much hahah b/c
- I'm not reducing the number of recharge cycles on my battery
- I'm not killing my battery by having it plugged in after it's fully charged!
- I feel like my laptop just had liposuction. Thinner (although not exactly proportional haha) and at least 2 lbs lighter!
- Also like an obese person becoming skinny, less heat. I can put my laptop on my legs without the battery burning off my skin!
I just realized that this is probly a bad idea for mac users b/c the charger plug comes out so easily. Muwahahah enjoy your heavy $1200 laptops. =p
It's kind of weird seeing an X and a "battery not detected" message where your battery symbol is on the start bar…I feel like there's something I'm not considering b/c I've never seen anyone in the US do this before…but then again I feel like this is such a Chinese thing to do haha.
ah i used to do this all the time frosh/soph year and it's annoying when people always just unplug your laptop (and shutting down my laptop unexpectedly) for a second thinking you have a battery there but there isn't.
ReplyDeleteuntil one day ryan bayer saw and was surprised at what i was doing and pointed out that it's useless -- normally and esp. for newer laptops when your battery is full it doesn't charge even though it's plugged in. for mine it says "99%/100% fully charged" (and not charging) when it's full. and if it's not full enough that it's actually charging it'll be sth like "95% and charging". so this way you never have to take the trouble of removing the battery and taking the risk of the plug coming out. you should check if your laptop is like that too!
hmmm i think my laptop is like that,but my laptop is still a lot lighter and less hot tho, so i might keep doing this for the summer at least...tho maybe not at school since people are always trying to steal your outlet...
ReplyDelete