Tag: Laptop Battery

This comes up so often. I get a message from someone that says their laptop battery is only holding a charge for a couple minutes, or worse, not at all. Sometimes they think they need a new computer. 

This is what happens when you treat your laptop like a desktop computer. By that I mean they always leave it plugged in and they are constantly charging it. All laptop batteries are designed to be used for maximum life. That means you should plug it in and charge it 100% and then you should unplug it and use it until it is down to 10% or less. A good rule is to plug it in when the screen starts to dim. This is caused by the built-in battery saver.

This doesn’t mean you can’t leave it plugged in if you are doing something very important and you want to make sure it doesn’t die. You just need to regularly use your battery as much as possible. They sort of have muscle memory and if you only use the top 10% and constantly charge it eventually that 10% is all you will have.Another issue with leaving your laptop plugged in all the time is THERMAL RUNAWAY. Your battery can actually become damaged and begin to swell. In extreme cases the battery can even explode. Here is a picture of a couple batteries, one brand new battery on the right and one that has begun to experience thermal runaway.

The laptop keyboard and trackpad were not working any longer due to the bulging battery.

So, if you have been in the habit of always leaving your laptop plugged in, you might want to start using your battery to preserve its life. If it is too late and your battery is almost dead, I can help you replace it.

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This is an issue that comes up frequently. Someone has a laptop that is only a couple years old, but the battery won’t hold a charge for more than about an hour when it used to last for many hours. 

What I usually find out is that this person leaves it plugged in almost all of the time. They only unplug if they want to use their laptop somewhere besides the desk or table they normally use. They think it might run out of juice.

That is the worst thing you can do with your laptop battery. It needs to be used. The entire battery, not just the top 10%. If you always keep it plugged in the battery will become useless. It is best to only plug it in when it is less than 10% left and then charge it until it is full. Once it is full, unplug it. By doing this your battery will last much longer and continue to give you hours of use per charge.

I know sometimes this is not possible if you are in an important meeting and can’t risk having the battery go dead. Leaving it plugged in once in a while will not cause damage but the constant plug in will. Another good thing to do is once a month let it die completely. This is like a reset for the battery.

One more reason to not leave your laptop plugged in all the time is that it can cause a chemical reaction that can break your laptop or in extreme cases cause a fire. Here is a picture of a battery I replaced recently. The one on the right is a new battery. The one on the left was removed from a laptop. It had actually broken one of the screws holding the bottom onto the laptop.

Here is a video I made a few years ago that talks about this.

So, what can you do if your battery is not holding a change any longer and your computer is not that old? It used to be easy to replace batteries since they were only held to the laptop with a couple clips on the bottom of the laptop. You can still replace batteries but now you need to remove the back cover of the laptop to do it. If you need help doing this, I can swap your battery for you.

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