Laptop charging and battery

[Maratib Ali]

So what is the best way of using charger of laptops,should i keep it plugged in during my sessions or should i charge the battery upto full then take it out then use full battery then plug it again? in other word if i keep charger plugged in during my flights will it damage the battery?

[Wayne Pierce]

So what is the best way of using charger of laptops,should i keep it plugged in during my sessions or should i charge the battery upto full then take it out then use full battery then plug it again? in other word if i keep charger plugged in during my flights will it damage the battery?

The laptop battery should be used down once in a while to "exercise" it so it won't lock in a memory of its use. Keeping a laptop plugged in would do no harm other than use the electricity all the time. It won't over charge.

If you use just the battery, your laptop has shut down some part of graphics and other programs to save it's own life and it may not function quite at 100%.

Your choice.

I quite often unplug mine at the desktop to use the battery, then recharge it.

[Theodore Martin]

There are two parameters that determine battery life. One is the memory issue that Wayne alluded to and the other is number of charge cycles. Batteries have a finite number of charge cycles (i.e. discharge/recharge cycles). That being said it is no problem using your laptop with the charger connected. Doing so helps to spread those charge cycles over a longer period of time since you don't have to charge it as much. However it is a good idea to occasionally allow the battery to discharge almost completely then give it a complete charge. For example if you continually discharge a battery to 50% of it's capacity then charge it again, the battery will eventually "remember" that 50% point and only allow discharge to that point thus not giving you full capacity.