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    Battery Care

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    Alif Mu'tashim
    The battery memory effect is a myth for modern lithium-ion batteries. It is safe to charge a lithium-ion battery regardless of its current charge level and there is no benefit to fully discharging it before recharging. However, overheating should be avoided by removing the battery from the laptop when it is plugged in and experiencing high temperatures. Frequent partial discharges and recharges are better for battery health than infrequent full discharge-charge cycles, but periodic full recalibration cycles help ensure the battery level indicator remains accurate.

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    Battery Care

    Uploaded by

    Alif Mu'tashim
    46 views4 pages
    The battery memory effect is a myth for modern lithium-ion batteries. It is safe to charge a lithium-ion battery regardless of its current charge level and there is no benefit to fully discharging it before recharging. However, overheating should be avoided by removing the battery from the laptop when it is plugged in and experiencing high temperatures. Frequent partial discharges and recharges are better for battery health than infrequent full discharge-charge cycles, but periodic full recalibration cycles help ensure the battery level indicator remains accurate.

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    Batt Care

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    The battery memory effect is a myth for modern lithium-ion batteries. It is safe to charge a lithium-ion battery regardless of its current charge level and there is no benefit to fully discharging it before recharging. However, overheating should be avoided by removing the battery from the laptop when it is plugged in and experiencing high temperatures. Frequent partial discharges and recharges are better for battery health than infrequent full discharge-charge cycles, but periodic full recalibration cycles help ensure the battery level indicator remains accurate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    46 views4 pages

    Battery Care

    Uploaded by

    Alif Mu'tashim
    The battery memory effect is a myth for modern lithium-ion batteries. It is safe to charge a lithium-ion battery regardless of its current charge level and there is no benefit to fully discharging it before recharging. However, overheating should be avoided by removing the battery from the laptop when it is plugged in and experiencing high temperatures. Frequent partial discharges and recharges are better for battery health than infrequent full discharge-charge cycles, but periodic full recalibration cycles help ensure the battery level indicator remains accurate.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 4

    Memory Effect

    First of all it's necessary to unfold a myth that persists in many people head.

    The battery memory effect.


    In lithium-based batteries this is in fact a myth, it only applies to older Nickle-based batteries.
    So fully discharging and charging the battery is completely useless and even harmful as we
    will see below.
    The modern lithium battery can be charged regardless of its current percentage, given that it
    has absolutely no negative effect in its performance.

    Should I remove the battery when A/C is plugged in?


    Many laptop users have this question and we will answer it right now:
    The answer is: YES and NO, it depends on the situation.
    Having a battery fully charged and the laptop plugged in is not harmful, because as soon as
    the charge level reaches 100% the battery stops receiving charging energy and this energy
    is bypassed directly to the power supply system of the laptop.
    However there's a disadvantage in keeping the battery in its socket when the laptop is
    plugged in, but only if it's currently suffering from excessive heating caused by the laptop
    hardware.
    So:
    -

    In a normal usage, if the laptop doesn't get too hot (CPU and Hard Disk around 40C
    to 50C) the battery should remain in the laptop socket;

    In an intensive usage which leads to a large amount of heat produced (i.e. Games,
    temperatures above 60C) the battery should be removed from the socket in order to
    prevent unwanted heating.

    The heat, among the fact that it has 100% of charge, is the great enemy of the lithium
    battery and not the plug, as many might think so.
    Battery discharges
    Full battery discharges (until laptop power shutdown, 0%) should be avoided, because this
    stresses the battery a lot and can even damage it. It's recommended to perform partial
    discharges to capacity levels of 20~30% and frequent charges, instead of performing a full
    discharging followed by a full charging.

    Laptop batteries contain a capacity gauge that allows us to know the exact amount of energy
    stored. However, due to the charging/discharging cycles, this sensor tends to be inaccurate
    overtime.
    Some laptops include in their BIOS, tools to recalibrate this battery gauge, which is nothing
    more than a full discharge followed by a full charge.
    So to calibrate the gauge, it should be performed, in every 30 discharge cycles, a full
    discharge non-stop , followed by a also, non-stop, full charge.
    An inaccurate gauge can lead to the fact that the the battery capacity values are are wrong.
    The battery may report that it still has 10% of capacity when in fact it has a much lower
    value, and this causes the computer to shutdown unexpectedly.
    Discharge (or charge) cycles consist of using all that battery charge (100%) but not
    necessarily all at once.

    For example, you can use the laptop for some minutes in a day, using half its capacity e then
    fully charge it. If you did the same thing in the next day, it would be counted a discharge
    cycle and not two, so it may take several days until a full discharge cycle is completed.

    How to perform a calibration (full discharge)?


    The most adequate method to do a full discharge (100% to a minimum of 3%) consists of the
    following procedure:
    1. Fully charge the battery to its maximum capacity (100%);

    2. Let the battery "rest" fully charged for 2 hours or more in order to cool down from the
    charging process. You may use the computer normally within this period;
    3. Unplug the power cord and set the computer to hibernate automatically at 5% as
    described by the image sequence below (click images to enlarge). If you cannot
    select 5%, then you should use the minimum value allowed, but never below 5%;

    4. Leave the computer discharging, non-stop, until it hibernates itself. You may use the
    computer normally within this period;
    5. When the computer shuts down completely, let it stay in the hibernation state for 5
    hours or even more;
    6. Plug the computer to the A/C power to perform a full charge non-stop until its
    maximum capacity (100%). You may use the computer normally within this period.
    After the calibration process, the reported wear level is usually higher than before. This is
    natural, since it now reports the true current capacity that the battery has to hold charge.

    Lithium Ion batteries have a limit amount of discharge cycles (generally 200 to 300 cycles)
    and they will retain less capacity over time.
    Many people tend to think "If calibrating gives higher wear level, then it's a bad thing". This is
    wrong, because like said, the calibration is meant to have your battery report the true
    capacity it can hold, and it's meant to avoid surprises like, for example, being in the middle of
    a presentation and suddenly the computer shuts down at 30% of charge.
    Prolonged storage
    To store a battery for long periods of time, its charge capacity should be around 40% and it
    should be stored in a place as fresh and dry as possible. A fridge can be used (0C - 10C),
    but only if the battery stays isolated from any humidity.
    One must say again that the battery's worst enemy is the heat, so leaving the laptop in the
    car in a hot summer day is half way to kill the battery.

    Purchasing a replacement battery


    If you intend to purchase another battery, it's recommended that you do it only when the
    current battery is very degraded. If it's not the case, the non usage of a battery leads to its
    degradation.
    If a spare battery is purchased and won't be used for a long time, the above storage method
    should be used.
    Besides that, when purchasing a battery you must pay attention to the manufacturing date.

    Advantages in using BatteryCare


    BatteryCare allows you to have the control over the discharge cycles number, and when this
    reaches 30 (or other configured value), it notifies you that it's time to perform a full discharge
    in order to keep the battery gauge calibrated.
    Like this, it's guaranteed to always have the correct capacity values reported by the battery.
    Besides, when using the battery, there's the possibility to suspend some Operating System
    features that help degrading the autonomy (only in Windows Vista or higher):
    -

    Windows Aero, the theme that allows for visual effects like window transparency,
    requires graphics card acceleration, which obviously will help decreasing the battery
    lifetime;

    SuperFetch, ReadyBoost and SearchIndexer are three Windows Vista (and higher)
    services that, even in battery mode, are using the hard disk a lot and increase total
    power consumption, thus decreasing battery lifetime. Suspending these services has
    absolutely no negative impact on the performance or security of the system.

    These features are resumed once the laptop is plugged in to A/C power.

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