Laptop Battery Care

[elwood]

I have just purchased my first laptop, and would appreciate some guidance regarding battery use.

The technician advised me to let the battery run down first, then give it a one-off 12-hours discharge, and not to leave it in the machine too much when using mains power.

I also read about not leaving the battery in for any lengths of time due to constant charging when I Googled the subject.

However the user manual says just to full charge the first time, and to leave the battery in the machine to prevent small particles from entering the computer, as the computer does not start recharging immediately after it drops from fully charged.

Sorry if the above is long-winded, comes from being computer semi-literate and an old codger.

As a bonus plea, can anyone advise the simplest way to transfer old files and programmes to the new computer? Old has XP Dodgy, New Win 7 Original).

Elwood

[Rabbi]

Can't tell you much about the battery life aspects except that I have had the one battery in my Laptop for nearly 5 years and it is plugged into the mains power 99.9% of the time. Only recently have noticed that now I can only get 1 hour whereas before it wass 6 or 7 hours life. Can't complain as generally they only have about 2 years life span.

With your new machine the data files can easily be copied across using a simple data/flash drive/stick, by CD/DVD, Bluetooth connection or even networking the 2 computers. Your programs I am pretty certain will have to be reinstalled from the original [albeit not authentic] CD's or if they were downloaded and you don't have copies you will have to download again.

Hope this assists.

[filingaccount]

I normally fully charge the battery, then run off battery power until completely drained, then I fully charge it again before turning the laptop back on. I do this just to see if there is any problem with battery capacity. I measure the actual battery wear level with, for example, Everest Ultimate. If the wear level is high on a new battery I return it for a new one.

It’s not bad to leave your laptop plugged in. In fact, it’s a good thing to keep it plugged in whenever you don’t need to be running on battery power.

Due to their chemistry, battery capacity slowly diminishes with age. Laptop batteries usually lose most of their useful capacity 2-3 years after manufacture (not initial use).

If you use the laptop on battery power a lot, the battery lifespan will be shortened. This “wearing out” effect is much less severe than with older battery technologies, but is still present. This is why you should plug it in if it’s convenient. Any “memory effect”, or the need to “refresh” or “deep-cycle” the battery by completely discharging before recharging, is stale knowledge from the time of NiCad and NiMH batteries. Lithium-ion batteries don’t suffer from the memory effect and thus can be charged at any time.

When plugged in, the battery is not in use (unless the battery is not fully charged, then it will charge). The laptop’s power circuitry bypasses the battery unless it’s needed. Depending on how smart the charger is, it may occasionally poll and “top off” the battery if its charge decreases to a certain threshold below 100%, but this is rarely needed in practice. Lithium-ion and lithium-polymer batteries have the lowest self-discharge rates of any common battery technology, estimated at less than 1% per month and difficult to distinguish from the loss of capacity with age.

To transfer your files over to the new laptop you can simply do a network transfer (takes a while) between the laptops. This is the simplest way and requires no new investment (eg. USB hard drives).

For any installed programs it is best to reinstall them fresh on Win7.

If you need more assistance, please feel free to PM me and we can sort things out privately without clogging the board with a lot of back and forth posts.

[elwood]

Two really helpful answers that even I can understand! It seems that following the manual is the better way to go.

Many thanks.

Elwood

[garyh]

Built into windows xp and 7 is files and settings transfer wizard, it is in accessories/system tools. It is simple and easy to use either through network or if that is not easy for you use a usb hard drive. Start on the old computer just run the wizard and follow the steps. It will transfer all of your files, emails, contacts etc. It will take a while to do it's job but really makes it easy.

[Rabbi]

Two really helpful answers that even I can understand! It seems that following the manual is the better way to go.

Many thanks.

Elwood

Elwood

By coincidence this article appeared in TecRepublic this afternoon.

you may want to look at it by following the link. as it appears it may also enable you to use your existing programs.

"How do I move my entire Windows XP installation into Windows 7 with Paragon Go Virtual? "

http://content.techrepublic.com.com/2346-12843_11-452948.html?tag=nl.e064

Cheers

[garyh]

To run virtual machine you will need windows 7 ultimate.

[BB1950]

By coincidence this article appeared in TecRepublic this afternoon.

you may want to look at it by following the link. as it appears it may also enable you to use your existing programs.

"How do I move my entire Windows XP installation into Windows 7 with Paragon Go Virtual? "

http://content.techr...tml?tag=nl.e064

Cheers

It is nothing new and has been around before Windows 7 was released.

It does not do what you think. I have Paragon Virtual Tools. It will not install or transfer you current applications to Windows 7. There is no software than can do that.

What it does is convert your existing XP system to a Virtual Hard Drive. You have to install Virtual Machine software, then use the Virtual Hard drive in a Virtual Machine within Windows 7.

Also it requires your Windows 7 system have more memory installed and it will impair the performance of Windows 7. The performance of the XP system will also be impaired. With Microsoft's Virtual PC 7, the size of the XP system partition to be less than 137 Gig. If the size of the partition is larger, it has to be shrunk. There are many other issues that need to be considered.

It is not easy for the average PC user, and requires some technical expertise to set up a Virtual Machine. If you don't understand any of this, it's definitely out of your league.

You best solution is to install your applications into Windows 7 and then transfer the data files.

Edited August 5, 2010 by BB1950

[Peterbigeyes]

Take the battery out when you are plugged in. It is recommended to drain your battery off its power and recharge it once per month.

[TigertheCat]

I kept my battery in and connected to mains for a year and after 1 year its over and need a new one.<br>Online advice says to initially fully charge then use on battery until nearly discharged then back to mains till fully charged then back to battery.<br>Should be good for 3 years or so<br>

[Fore Man]

Be very careful operating your PC with the battery removed and running only on AC power. If for any reason you lose power, or accidentally dislodge the jack, there is a good chance you will crash the IDE and also may cause irreparable problems with the BIOS. Some BIOS chips can be reflashed and some cannot. It happened to me with a nearly brand new Panasonic Toughbook CF-W4 at a trade show a few years back. The PC had to be sent back to the vendor to install a new BIOS chip and other work performed before we had use of it again. Some folks remove their batteries while connected to an airliner's AC port. Why? because when the battery is connected, the AC power source is insuffient to operate the battery charging circuit and the PC can't be run on AC unless the battery is removed. With the jostling that typically occurs on an airliner, seatmates moving about etc, this is a recipe for disaster.

[nikster]

Don't worry about the battery. Do what it says in the manual, which is to say, pretty much nothing.

There's lots of "smarts" built into the computer that takes care of extending the battery life as much as possible. But chances are it won't last longer than 2 years anyway. In my experience with batteries, how long they live is largely a matter of chance. Some die before the year is over, others hold almost full charge 5 years on (only to crash completely in the 6th).

There's a lot of voodoo and legend out there as to what to do to make the battery be in optimal condition. A lot of it was true for previous generations. The latest technology doesn't need any of it, and some of it can actually be harmful.

Don't ever take the battery out to "preserve it". The computer does not bypass the battery completely when plugged in, otherwise it would crash every time you unplug the power cable.

About Li-ION batteries: They can do a certain number of charge cycles. But they also age. So if you leave one lying around doing nothing for 2 years, it will likely be just as dead as one that was used every day.

[nikster]

It does not do what you think. I have Paragon Virtual Tools. It will not install or transfer you current applications to Windows 7. There is no software than can do that.

One of my major gripes with Windows.

On the Mac, it works just fine: Connect your old Mac. Transfer everything (files, settings, and applications). Start working.

Why they can't make this work on Windows, in 2010, is a mystery.

[elwood]

Thanks very much to all who took the trouble to reply to my query, and I hope it will be of use to any other "laptop newbie"

Elwood