I've heard that removing a battery from a laptop when it's on AC power is a good way to conserve the battery's life. However, I've also heard that doing so is a good way to mess up your computer. Do you guys know which is true, if either?
My rule of thumb is that I remove my batter when I am going to in one spot for any longer than two hours.
Some will argue that newer batters do not draw usage when the laptop is plugged in. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but I can assure you that if the battery is removed, there is no way it's being used.
As for the 2nd part of your post, I have no idea what could be screwed up in a laptop by removing the battery. It's simply a secondary power source.
I also hear that setting a charging threshold could help save the battery. Is that true?
I have not heard of a charging threshold, is this specific to the Windows operating system, or something that gets set in the Bios of the Laptop?
I think I read that it was included in a couple of laptop brands' laptops.
(08-08-2010 01:51 AM)RWenger Wrote: [ -> ]I also hear that setting a charging threshold could help save the battery. Is that true?
The power managment for my work laptop has that option and I have it set for that. Basically I think that it only charges the battery to 96%. I don't know if that will help expand it's life but it can't hurt can it right?
If you want to know if it is there look in the manufacturer's (not window's) power managment. Mine is under the sub-menu battery maintenance & the option is "Optimize for battery lifespan (automatically charge for me)."
I don't see any utility from Toshiba except for their eco utility, which doesn't offer threshold settings as far as I can tell.
It could cause increased wear on the components, and screen by running in full power mode. With battery power laptops normally run in a power conservation mode.
So are you saying that a laptop shouldn't run in full power mode even when plugged in to a power source?
No, I was saying if only the battery is used to power the laptop vs battery in place but plugged into AC source. I believe that must be what Robert read about saying it could cause damage to the laptop. If you have no battery of course it will be running off the outlet AC in full power mode.
Actually my laptop runs in an eco mode all of the time, whether plugged in or not.
Come to think of it, I think what I read was about running a laptop with a dead battery installed.
One can change the brightness level in the BIOS. It's usually set (on a scale of one to eight) 3 for Battery & 8 for AC Adapter.
Yes, but an average laptop user will never change those settings, or even know what the BIOS is.
Whats the bios?
I don't remember seeing brightness settings in my work comp's bios however it is in the system power managment. One thing I was able to do (thankfully) is how to keep the computer from underclocking the processor. By default it is underclocked by 2/3 regardless as to whether or not it is plugged in.
That was also in the power managment.