I'll pass on what little battery wisdom I learned from some saavy friends
and a bit of web research.
Whatever you do, don't drain the batteries "all the way".
Lots of people do that thinking it will purge them of "memory".
* Most new batteries don't have memory effects.
* The ones that maybe did were NiCad batteries, and
there's good reason to believe they didn't have it either.
* Draining any battery "all the way" is one of the best
ways to kill it. It will probably reverse a cell. Bad.
* Draining a computer battery to the level where it
won't run the computer is probably OK (for the
battery at least....) but don't drain it in sleep
mode, or use it run a flashlight-bulb, etc.
* The most common cause of premature battery
fatigue is...
OVERCHARGING
More charging when the battery is near capacity
can start to cook off electrolyte. That's why
most serious battery enthusiasts (amateur radio,
cavers) have trickle chargers.
* Trickle charge (10 or so hours to charge) isn't practical
with laptops. Laptops use (hopefully) intelligent
rapid-charging, backing off the current as the
the battery reaches capacity. I'm told it's not as
good, but can be OK, depending on the quality of
the backoff.
* So it's kinder to recharge your battery while running
the laptop -- less current available for charging.
If your battery is overcooked, I'm not sure you can do much. You've
already tried several recharge cycles (with, I hope, not "all the way"
discharges).
In theory, it's good to use the battery regularly because then it doesn't
spend all of its life being charged while already at capacity.
But the details probably depend on knowing more about your systems
electronics than I do.
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Charles R. Twardy, Postdoc, Monash University, School of CSSE
[EMAIL PROTECTED] +61(3) 9905 5823 (w) +61(3) 9905 5146 (fax)
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"History teaches that grave threats to liberty often come in times of
urgency, when constitutional rights seem too extravagant to endure."
- Justice Thurgood Marshall (1989)
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