best way to look after laptop battery

[smokin]

I believe that you should pull the battery when not using it...so if you use the laptop like a desktop, no need for a battery and only put it in when you need it...it does save the life since a battery, any of them, only have so many charges in it, even if its fully charged...its still getting a trickle

[Chimaera]

Laptops have evolved somewhat but the advise we give in the shop is once a month ish run the battery right down until the machine exits then add the lead in and charge fully and continue. allegedly this help prolong the life of the battery.

[jcmg]

Laptops have evolved somewhat but the advise we give in the shop is once a month ish run the battery right down until the machine exits then add the lead in and charge fully and continue. allegedly this help prolong the life of the battery.

That is spot on, similar to how you should charge your phone battery. A lot of people make the mistake of charging the phone whenever they are within distance of their charger. This will actually lower the lifespan & performance of your battery!

[Canker_Canison]

Just to contradict you on some of the advice.

All laptops & mobile phones now use Li-ion/poly batteries. As previously stated these come with a built in overcharge circuit.

But this also has a cut off level to stop cells being totally discharged. The problem being that this can be over-ridden very easily by morons.

Like lead cells, modern batteries will not take a charge if completely discharged. So a multi cell laptop battery only has to lose one cell & it's buggered. Given that cells discharge at different rates you cannot accuratley gauge what is a safe low charge state.

What you will find is that a laptop will shut off & the first thing the moron does is try to turn it on again. Do this a couple of times & it might be causing problems with the cells.

Blackberries have a serious problem with this. Mainly caused by the power off function doesn't actually turn the phone off. The battery causes the phone to shut down, but continues to draw power. Leave it that way for a day & you could end up needing a new battery. I see it evey week.

Li-ion/poly batteries do not suffer from 'memory' issues. I've had a netbook for over a year & it's nearly always connected to the mains when I use it. Maybe once a month, if it's lucky, it might get used on the battery. I still get about 4 hours from a full charge to the 10% warning.

If you are worried that just run the 80% charge setting in windows. But these batteries get most of their power in that last 20%. Ask any Nissan Leaf owner,