How to Prevent Your Laptop’s Battery from Dying Young
Nope, this post has nothing really to do with writing or publishing or “wordpreneuring” (now there’s an interesting verb!), save for the fact that a good number of us rely on our laptops to make a living. So, I figure, this post fits…
What happened: My laptop’s battery went kablooey last week. Took me a while to figure out it was the battery that was having fits, actually — my laptop’s barely a week or two past its first birthday (young in my book), and really has been used more like a desktop and only occasionally as a portable. Not roughly bounced around much, in other words.
But, I’ve come to learn, having it set up and working like a desktop seems to be what killed that battery!
As a “desktop,” I had my laptop plugged in via its AC adapter most of the time. The battery was being juiced constantly. Not good for the battery at all. And not good for the AC adapter either. A number of different sources online all said the same thing: To maximize the battery’s lifespan, juice it up 100% then unplug it, run it on battery power as long as possible before recharging.
Simple. I’m willing to bet the laptop’s manual actually says that somewhere, but who the heck reads docs? 
Considering that replacement laptop batteries typically hit the 3-figure mark normal retail, I’d say that trying to keep them in working order for as long as possible is worth the effort… especially when there’s not much to the “effort” at all.
Checking around through normal — including discount — online retail channels, my laptop’s battery was priced from about $150 to $200.
I got mine for exactly $55.99, shipping and handling included. Through eBay. And I bought it new, no bidding (I did an option called “Buy It Now”). That’s 1/3rd retail. True, it takes a bit more work to shop through eBay, and all those mostly small merchants to sift through makes it a bit riskier than going straight to a trusted big retailer. That’s the eBay territory. If it helps any, I got mine from an eBay seller called sib-usa. They did right by me, at least.
Anyway, remember: charge and unplug.
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2 Responses to “How to Prevent Your Laptop’s Battery from Dying Young”
By Laura G on Jul 22, 2008 | Reply
That’s interesting, because I was told just the opposite — that running down my battery every single night was what caused it to die young. Maybe it depends on the battery?
By Wordpreneur on Jul 23, 2008 | Reply
Could be.
If I’m not mistaken, most of the current crop of laptop batteries are lithium ion, and they should all have the same properties and usage behavior.
The older machines generally had NiCads, and those had their own set of “rules.”