[Compnoobie]

I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop. 99.9999% of the time, I keep the AC plugged in. I've looked around the internet and I've seen articles suggesting this is bad and this drains the battery. Is this true? Also, I tend to leave my laptop on the whole day, and at night, I still leave it on, except I turn off the monitor. Will this practice of mine also severely damage my battery? The bottom of my laptop near the battery is fairly warm, so I'm afraid this high heat will also damage the battery. Is it possible to take out the battery and run my laptop solely on the AC? Any response would be great, thanks.

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It doesn't drain the battery, and neither (as I thought) does it "overcharge" it because all Li-ion batteries have a built-in overcharge-protection circuit.

But what many people don't realise is that even when used on AC power, the battery is constantly being used and topped up, allbeit by only small amounts, so it's actually being recharged. Since a Li-ion battery can only be charged up a limited number of times before it is rendered useless, you can see why you shouldn't leave it connected when using AC power for most of the time. It shortens the life of the battery but not through overcharging as many people may think.

So in your situation you should remove the battery pack and store it away somewhere dry (and, yes, your lappy will work on AC with the battery removed).

General wisdom is NOT to store the battery in a "flat" state, but to run it down to about 40% charge then remove it and store away until needed. Putting it safely inside your laptop case may be a good idea so you don't go dashing off somwhere without it.

Edited by pip22, 06 March 2007 - 02:53 AM.

[pip22]

It doesn't drain the battery, and neither (as I thought) does it "overcharge" it because all Li-ion batteries have a built-in overcharge-protection circuit.

But what many people don't realise is that even when used on AC power, the battery is constantly being used and topped up, allbeit by only small amounts, so it's actually being recharged. Since a Li-ion battery can only be charged up a limited number of times before it is rendered useless, you can see why you shouldn't leave it connected when using AC power for most of the time. It shortens the life of the battery but not through overcharging as many people may think.

So in your situation you should remove the battery pack and store it away somewhere dry (and, yes, your lappy will work on AC with the battery removed).

General wisdom is NOT to store the battery in a "flat" state, but to run it down to about 40% charge then remove it and store away until needed. Putting it safely inside your laptop case may be a good idea so you don't go dashing off somwhere without it.

Edited by pip22, 06 March 2007 - 02:53 AM.

[Compnoobie]

If I remove the battery, there's going to be this big gap/hole in the bottom of my laptop. Because of this, it sort of wobbles. I don't really mind if it wobbles, but is it alright to have this big gap in the bottom of my laptop? I'm afraid that it might interfere with the vents at the bottom or dust will collect in the gap.