mobilenvidia Posted April 24, 2005 Report Share Posted April 24, 2005 AC Adapter Caution: 1) The AC adapter is designed for use with your notebook only. Connecting the AC adapter to another device can damage the adapter. 2) The AC power cord supplied with your notebook is for use in the country where you purchased your notebook. If you plan to go overseas with the notebook, consult your dealer for the appropriate power cord. The AC adapter serves as a converter from AC (alternating current) to DC (direct current) power because your notebook runs on DC power, but an electrical outlet usually provides AC power. It operates on any voltage in the range of 90-265V AC. The battery pack automatically recharges while your notebook is connected to AC power. Determining the Amount of Battery Life Left The battery is made up of chemical material and its capacity cannot be measured physically. The only way of knowing the battery charge is by estimation. However, the estimation may get less accurate under some situations (for example, after a long period of storage or after replacement of battery packs). If this happens, you should fully recharge the battery. By Gas Gauge (available only for the notebooks equipped with Battery with Gas Gauge) On the top or side of the battery pack is a gas gauge for displaying the battery charge. If the battery pack is not installed in the notebook and you want to know the battery charge, you can press the on/off switch with a pointed device to see the number of indicators that light green. The number of green indicators indicates the relative percentage of the battery charge. By Operating System (available only for notebooks equipped with Smart Battery)While the notebook is in use, you can know the battery charge with some operating systems, e.g., Windows. Windows can display a battery meter that shows the battery charge. Important Notes on Using Battery Pack Recharging and discharging Recharging will not start if the battery's temperature is below 0ºC (32ºF) or above 45ºC (113ºC). Also, during recharging, the recharging will stop if the battery's temperature gets above 60ºC (140ºF). To avoid problems caused by temperatures, make sure the battery is not too hot before you begin to recharge or discharge the battery. Follow these general advises: * When the battery is fully discharged, allow a 30-minute interval before you connect the AC adapter to recharge the battery. * When the battery is being recharged, keep the notebook power off and wait until it is fully recharged. * When the battery is fully recharged, disconnect the AC adapter and allow a 30-minute interval before you begin to use the battery power. * During recharging, do not disconnect the AC adapter before the battery has been fully charged; otherwise you will get a prematurely charged battery. * After the notebook has been fully recharged, do not immediately disconnect and reconnect the AC adapter to charge it again. Doing so may damage the battery. * Do not leave the battery completely discharged for too long as this may affect the battery's performance. Maintaining charge on NiMH battery The operating time of a NiMH battery will get shorter than expected if the notebook has not been used for a long time (say, a few weeks). This is because NiMH batteries are susceptible to self-discharge: the battery will discharge itself even if not in use. Normally a fully-charged battery gets totally self-discharged in one to one and a half months. If this happens, solve the problem by charging and discharging the battery for a minimum of three times. This means after you fully charge the battery and then used up the battery power for three times, the battery should regain its operating time. Operating and Handling * Never remove the battery pack while it is in use. If you need to replace the battery pack, make sure you have turned off the notebook power. * Leave the battery pack in place unless you will replace it. If you remove the battery pack, keep it away from conductors such as metals and water. In case the battery's pins get into touch with conductors, the battery may become unusable as a result of short-circuit. * When you disconnect the AC adapter, disconnect from the electrical outlet first and then from the notebook. To prevent data loss that may be caused by low battery, develop the habit of frequently saving your data to the hard disk or a diskette. Maintenance of the Battery *When you install a new battery, fully charge and discharge the battery at least once and then fully charge the battery before you begin to use the battery power for the first time. *Protect your notebook from extremes in temperature. (See "Environmental specifications" in Appendix A for temperature range.) *Do not store fully-charged NiMH battery in a bulky, densely packed condition, otherwise the overheating of the battery pack and subsequently the melting of the plastic case can happen. Battery Low Signals and Actions Battery Low occurs when the battery has approximately 10% of its charge remaining. The notebook gives warning beeps to alert you to take actions. If your notebook model has LED indicators, the Battery indicator will blink orange. Immediately save your date upon Battery Low. The remaining operating time depends on how you are using the notebook: if you are using the audio subsystem, PC card, hard or floppy disk drives, the battery might run out of charge very quickly. Always respond to Battery low by connecting the AC adapter or turning off the notebook, or suspending your notebook to disk. If you do not take any action, after two minutes' warning beeps, the notebook will automatically suspend to disk and turn off. Caution: 1) If the "Battery Low warning beep" is set to [disable] in the SETUP program, the notebook will not beep. 2) If the suspend-to-disk partition does not exist on your hard disk, the notebook will not be able to suspend to disk. It will keep on beeping until you take actions or until the battery runs out of charge. 3) If you are using a flash PC card, do not access the card during low battery periods. This is because the access may take longer than the time it takes the battery to run out of charge, thus making your access unsuccessful. 4) If you fail to save your data when the battery completely runs out of charge, then you lose your data. Power-Saving Tips Your notebook implements Power Management features that automatically conserve power for you. You can also take the following measures in conserving battery power: 1) Lower the brightness of the LCD display. Select the lowest brightness that you feel comfortable with. 2) Be conservative in setting the "hard disk power down after." Power drain from spooling up the drive can often outweigh the power savings from shutting it down. If an application does not frequently access the hard disk drive, you may shorten the time-out period. This causes the hard disk drive to enter standby mode after a shorted idle time and thus conserve power. 3) Set up a disk cache, RAM disk, or both. The best type of disk cache is one that can cache disk reads as well as writes. A RAM disk, used like a hard disk drive, can reduce drive access and save battery power. This FAQ came from ChemUSA so kudos to them for making it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mobilenvidia Posted May 5, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 http://www.batteriesdigest.com/id235.htm and http://www.buchmann.ca/Chap10-page6.asp Feel free to add more links. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSudlow Posted May 5, 2005 Report Share Posted May 5, 2005 Ah... You beat me to the buchmann link. That's been my bible for a few years now. This is a great thread, Pieter... Cheers for posting it! :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Guest Posted October 7, 2007 Report Share Posted October 7, 2007 Here's something i found in a help file for the battery tool that comes with a ThinkPad notebook: If you primarily use your computer with the ac adapter attached and only infrequently use battery power, you can increase the lifespan of the battery by changing the charge thresholds (max charging level & min percentage of remaining battery life). This allows you to reduce the number of charge cycles by letting the battery discharge to a lower percentage before beginning to recharge. It also allows you to set the maximum charge value to below 100%. This is useful because batteries which are used infrequently have a longer lifespan when they are stored at less than full charge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Numbers Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 If I'm using laptop as a desktop at home... can I just remove batery? I did it. My Qosmio works ok. Once in 2-3 month I'm discharging the baterry pack, then recharge again and remove. So my notebook works without battery pack. Is it ok for the computer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone93 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 lol wow i didnt know you had to take so many steps, :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 Is it true that keeping your battery fully charged and plugged into the wall at all times is bad for the battery? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone93 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 well i should think the laptop is taking in power from the ac not the battery when u do that, nywayz i do that all the time whn i use my lappy :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 The power is supposed to be directly sourced from the battery. Hence, without protective mechanisms, overcharging will occur causing battery damage. That's how I look at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone93 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 i have my old dell latitude for about 4 years, it used to have about 1hour 30 mins of battery now it just manages about 30 mins lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 Yeah, that's why I always discharge my laptop completely once every week. But for a 4 year old laptop, that isn't phenomenally bad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone93 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 its specs: intel petium with centrino tech: 1.8ghz single core (remember this was made in 2004) 512mb ram (this was massive in its time) ati radeon x600 (direct opponent to the geforce go 6600 gt) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 (edited) Nice specs for it's time. Edited July 9, 2008 by Andrew55 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone93 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 hell yeah it should be, my dad's company paid £1000 for it!! XD i dont what you on about there though But the battery life was definitely affected by leaving it in the wall all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 My mistake, my tiredness is getting to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone93 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 whats ur time zone in trinidad and tobago? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 It's currently 6:16 a.m. Haven't slept all night but I am going now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone93 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 lol in england its 11.19 in the morning and im drinking coke lol :) kk cya Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSudlow Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 Guys, you're working from outdated information that applied to older Ni-Cad batteries, but not today's Lithium-ion batteries. - Unlike Ni-Cad batteries that required it, L-ion batteries are damaged by deep discharging. They like to stay fully charged and be topped off frequently, which works well for laptops and phones. - All modern chargers and laptops protect from overcharging. There's no damage at all from leaving them plugged in all the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyclone93 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 yar hes right mobilenvidia :) :P :) how did u make these smilies? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew55 Posted July 9, 2008 Report Share Posted July 9, 2008 VERY helpful info! This changes the way I look at charging laptop and cell phone batteries forever. And yes I am serious! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iLL-ViZi0N Posted July 11, 2008 Report Share Posted July 11, 2008 Thanks for the info!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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