On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 06:49, Mark Janssen wrote: > On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 13:01, Paulo Lopes wrote: > > Does anyone know how to charge the battery to the maximum? thanks. > > If it's not an older battery/laptop... try discharging it fully and then > do a full charge with the laptop turned off.
No, no, no, no, no! I constantly see this advice. Don't do it! Discharging an Li battery *fully* will *kill* it, forever. The proper storage conditions for Li batteries is in a cool dry place, at about 40% charge[1]. Keeping it topped off isn't bad, but it's a lot better at 40% for storage. If your laptop is older, it may use NiMH or NiCd batteries. These do rejuvenate a bit via a full cycle. They are also damaged by "shallow" (short) charges or discharges, which should be avoided (NiMH deals with these much better than NiCd). Li batteries suffer much less from these "shallow charging" problems[2]. However, their lifespan is much shorter - 1-2 years from average use, and I've seen reports as low as 3 months for people who didn't bother with decent battery storage. This is probably, unfortunately, what happened to yours. If the battery is new, it may be under warranty (most companies warrant batteries a shorter time than the laptop itself, if at all). [1] http://www.powerpulse.net/powerpulse/archive/aa_040201b3.stm [2] http://www.buchmann.ca/Chap10-page6.asp -- Joe Wreschnig <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
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