Netbook (Samsung N140) Battery Condition

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Babylon

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Taking the advice of Full Circle (a five star forumite) and others earlier this year, I bought a Samsung N140 netbook for onboard and sailing/boat related use.

I'm concerned to be doing the right thing to look after the battery's condition long term - two questions:

1. when running it off 240v or off the 12v supply, should I remove the battery?
2. when using the battery, is it better to cycle it right down and charge it fully back up (like old mobile phone batteries) or just charge it back up as-and-when from whatever state of discharge (like modern mobile phone batteries)?

Thanks

Babs
 
FullCircle said:
Good link, thanks.

Remove the battery on auxiliary power, but put it in to charge it again once a month or so.
Click to expand...
That is an old article - Copyright 2005 - and it does not take into account developments in laptop and battery design.

My last laptop (Toshiba) lasted for over 4 years, used most days for work, running from the mains frequently and always with the batteries in. The computer died, not the batteries, which continued to give me the 6+ hours off the mains that they did when I got it originally. My new work laptop (also Toshiba) has a battery pack half the size which gives me 8 hours off the mains and will get exactly the same treatment, as will the Samsung N130 that's for the boat. There is no reason to remove batteries from modern laptops, and there's no reason to run them flat like you had to with Ni-Cd.
 
andygc said:
That is an old article - Copyright 2005 - and it does not take into account developments in laptop and battery design.

My last laptop (Toshiba) lasted for over 4 years, used most days for work, running from the mains frequently and always with the batteries in. The computer died, not the batteries, which continued to give me the 6+ hours off the mains that they did when I got it originally. My new work laptop (also Toshiba) has a battery pack half the size which gives me 8 hours off the mains and will get exactly the same treatment, as will the Samsung N130 that's for the boat. There is no reason to remove batteries from modern laptops, and there's no reason to run them flat like you had to with Ni-Cd.
Click to expand...

Please treat the above with a tongue in cheek.
The thing with ION batteries (computer batts) is that they all come with a limited warranty of only 6 months from new. When the battery is in the computer and plugged into a 240/250 supply the baterry will always take some charge. Now here is a quandry for you. The average comp batt will only take 300+/- hours charge. So the correct advice is to ALWAYS take the battery out when using mains power. Before taking it out it should have 50% power init. Do not add or removed the battery whilst using mains.

Peter
 
rivonia said:
Please treat the above with a tongue in cheek.
The thing with ION batteries (computer batts) is that they all come with a limited warranty of only 6 months from new. When the battery is in the computer and plugged into a 240/250 supply the baterry will always take some charge. Now here is a quandry for you. The average comp batt will only take 300+/- hours charge. So the correct advice is to ALWAYS take the battery out when using mains power. Before taking it out it should have 50% power init. Do not add or removed the battery whilst using mains.

Peter
Click to expand...
Why tongue in cheek? Please give your credentials. My posting is based on personal experience of using modern batteries in modern computers and phones.

I have used laptops for many years. Previously the batteries did not last much over 18 months. With my Toshiba Portege R100 I did far more than 300 hours running on mains over more than 4 years with no noticeable loss of battery life (I've worked it out - at least 2,880 hours) . I know that to be fact because every now and then I ran it on battery to flat because I had no mains available. That computer, my current Toshiba and my Samsung N130 have battery charge sensing in conjunction with the battery pack's own charge control circuitry- the mains light changes colour when the battery is charged, and the charging stops.

Similarly, one of my previous mobile phones had a battery that lasted just over a year. The next one lasted over two years. I have had my current phone for over 3 years and I charge it frequently from any state of charge. In the car the phone's internal charging circuit switches off when the battery is fully charged - the phone wakes up to tell me when it is charged and when the charging restarts. The battery lasts pretty well as long as it did when new.

Your correct advice is, in my experience, tosh.
 
andygc said:
Your correct advice is, in my experience, tosh.
Click to expand...


Ahem.

So what 'damage' can be done by removing the battery? Seems to me that it cant do any harm. Conversely, not removing the abattery has a potential downside.

I am not a PhD in Battery Tech.
 
FullCircle said:
Ahem.

So what 'damage' can be done by removing the battery? Seems to me that it cant do any harm. Conversely, not removing the abattery has a potential downside.

I am not a PhD in Battery Tech.
Click to expand...
I have just had a netbook in with a duff battery, also had a dicky charger (an intermittant connection), it also had a duff hard drive. It turned out that the battery was really dead, so no buffer, the intermittant connection made the computer die unexpectedly, this allowed the heads on the hard drive to touch the platters and screw the hard drive. The prob with taking the battery out is that you remove the buffer. IF the charger becomes disconnected, result? a shagged hard drive!
Do what the manufacturer intended, leave the battery in.
Stu
 
shagging netbooks

skipper_stu said:
I have just had a netbook in with a duff battery, also had a dicky charger (an intermittant connection), it also had a duff hard drive. It turned out that the battery was really dead, so no buffer, the intermittant connection made the computer die unexpectedly, this allowed the heads on the hard drive to touch the platters and screw the hard drive. The prob with taking the battery out is that you remove the buffer. IF the charger becomes disconnected, result? a shagged hard drive!
Do what the manufacturer intended, leave the battery in.
Stu
Click to expand...

Hi Stu and others,
Have to agree, leave battery in so as when tripping over power lead,no trauma for your netbook or lappy.Good news is I'm typing this on the revived Asus eeepc with new Kingston SSD 32GB,now it flies along with XP.
Also new location south of Arklow tonight, We have 95%/100% digital TV on a metronics box just arrived yesterday Ebay purchase, using the old analogue aerial.Not bad for a tenner's worth!The red button option seems to jam the works as does Direct Gov.May revert to Satellite.Appaarently high tides may also affect reception.Now what's a mux?
sailing starts here about now, so I'm looking forward to getting afloat.
 
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