Laptop battery care

[agibsonsw]

Hello.

I have a new laptop and would like suggestions for battery care and optimization pl; the battery on another (older) laptop now hardly works and needs to be plugged to the mains permanently.

The battery was initially charged to 68% and I'm charging it to 100%. When it reaches 100% should I unplug from the mains and let it charge down? Should I change the power settings to try and fully discharge it? Or should I remove the battery (and let it discharge "naturally" over a long period)?

Ta, Andy.

[HansV]

See for example Proper laptop battery usage guide.

[agibsonsw]

See for example Proper laptop battery usage guide.

Thank you. It just occurred to me that my (new) COMPAQ Presario CQ57-356SA 15.6" is supposed to have a 5.75 hour battery life - far longer than my previous laptop. So even as this degrades over time it should still be more than adequate for my occasional needs.

BTW Dual Core, W7 64Bit, Dual-Core, 4GB Ram, 500GB HD, etc., for £299.00 GBP is a bit of a result . Although it's disturbing when the salesman says: "Compaq Presario.. Is that a laptop?"

"Burning" recovery disks currently. The first thing I might install is Revo UnInstaller.. Regards, Andy.

Processor AMD Dual-Core E-300
- 1,3 GHz
- 488 MHz FSB
- 1 MB L2 cache
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
RAM 4 GB
- DDR3
- 4 GB maximum expandable memory
Graphics card AMD Radeon HD 6310M
up to 1.92 GB
Screen type High-Definition LED BrightView Display
Screen resolution 1366 x 768
Screen size 15.6"
Screen features Widescreen
Hard drive 500GB
- SATA
- 5400 rpm
Optical disk drive SuperMulti DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Memory card reader Multi-Format Digital Media Card Reader for Secure Digital cards, Multimedia cards
USB 3 USB 2.0 ports
Modem/Ethernet Integrated 10/100 BASE-T Ethernet LAN
WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
Video interface RJ45
Audio interface 3.5mm audio out, 3.5mm audio in
TV output VGA
Sound Altec Lansing speakers
Webcam 0.3MP
Keyboard & Mouse Full size textured keyboard with 6 function cells
TouchPad supporting Multi-Touch gestures with On/Off button
Battery Lithium-Ion, Upto 5.75 hours