Leaving laptop on 24/7 + Plugged In

[KeeperOfThePizza]

Just wondering if leaving my laptop on 24/7 and plugged in is bad? I hear it can kill your battery over time? then again I hear it's completely false, I know that heat isnt good for the battery but my laptop is runs rather cool (i also use a laptop cooler). I dont really do much with it except listen to music and browse.

[Tech Star]

Yes it is bad for your battery if you leave it in the charger all the time. It won't cause the battery any harm, but it will cut it's lifespan. Take the battery out and put it somewhere cool and just keep your laptop plugged in to the outlet for power.

[tsupersonic]

I agree, take the battery out if you're going to be doing that.

[Alan-]

Yeah it is never good to "overcharge" batteries. That is why I have seen a few products on the market that reportedly stop charging once it is full. However like said before, you can take the battery out and just simply plug it in. And then when you want to take it somewhere, just slap the battery in and go!

[KeeperOfThePizza]

Okay, but my issue is what effect will this have if I'm working on my laptop and the power suddenly goes out?

[Owen W Veteran]

Okay, but my issue is what effect will this have if I'm working on my laptop and the power suddenly goes out?

Uh, the laptop will power off?

Leaving it on all the time and charging is very bad, speaking from experience, a battery that lasted up to 2 hours when I bought my laptop, now lasts only 11 minutes when unplugged because I left it on and plugged in for over 2 years now.

[Tech Star]

Yeah it is never good to "overcharge" batteries. That is why I have seen a few products on the market that reportedly stop charging once it is full. However like said before, you can take the battery out and just simply plug it in. And then when you want to take it somewhere, just slap the battery in and go!

You can't overcharge a Li-ion (Lithium-ion) battery. They just simply stop charging after they are 100%.

[Owen W Veteran]

You can't overcharge a Li-ion (Lithium-ion) battery. They just simply stop charging after they are 100%.

Odd, considering my battery is Li-Ion. Though I can imagine the charge cycles die after extensive use.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

Well i always thought that taking the battery out and running on a/c would cause hard drive failure.

I'm a first time laptop owner. I mostly use my desktop

[Roger H. Veteran]

Uh, the laptop will power off?

Leaving it on all the time and charging is very bad, speaking from experience, a battery that lasted up to 2 hours when I bought my laptop, now lasts only 11 minutes when unplugged because I left it on and plugged in for over 2 years now.

Battery cells die over time even if they aren't used so this have nothing to do with the plugged in fact. The fact that it's constantly plugged in would normally mean the laptops are running in full powered mode but that's one reason why Vista and 7 offer better power savings as the CPU and rest of devices get to clock down into their low powered states. So even if it's constantly plugged in, the battery wouldn't get any warmer than if the laptop was plugged out.

As pointed out above also, Li-ON and NiMH batteries can't be overcharged (mine actually doesn't charge till it gets below 95%) as they have circuitry built into them to prevent overcharging. The battery tells the laptop that it's full charged and the circuitry shuts off/diverts the charge from the AC adapter to just power the laptop and the battery sits idle.

What kills batteries are cycles (heat too but not normal usage heat). Deep discharges are also bad for your batteries so top it off whenever you can, you don't need to run it down to 5% then recharge it (some say it's good to do it after 30 cycles or so).

[Owen W Veteran]

Well i always thought that taking the battery out and running on a/c would cause hard drive failure.

I'm a first time laptop owner. I mostly use my desktop

Nah, even if the power goes out, it's exactly the same as when the power goes out on your PC. Laptops are no more flimsy then your PC

[Tech Star]

Odd, considering my battery is Li-Ion. Though I can imagine the charge cycles die after extensive use.

Correct. If you leave it plugged in, it will lose power and then it will charge it over and over again when it hits 100%. Thus ruining its lifespan.

Well i always thought that taking the battery out and running on a/c would cause hard drive failure.

I'm a first time laptop owner. I mostly use my desktop

Incorrect. Whoever said it will cause hard drive failure does not know what he/she is talking about. It's just that instead of charging the battery to get power you are getting power directly.

Your safe if you use it without having the battery in place.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

Correct. If you leave it plugged in, it will lose power and then it will charge it over and over again when it hits 100%. Thus ruining its lifespan.

Incorrect. Whoever said it will cause hard drive failure does not know what he/she is talking about. It's just that instead of charging the battery to get power you are getting power directly.

Your safe if you use it without having the battery in place.

Okay goood. rather here it from here.

[Owen W Veteran]

Correct. If you leave it plugged in, it will lose power and then it will charge it over and over again when it hits 100%. Thus ruining its lifespan.

Incorrect. Whoever said it will cause hard drive failure does not know what he/she is talking about. It's just that instead of charging the battery to get power you are getting power directly.

Your safe if you use it without having the battery in place.

Yeah. You can even remove the laptop battery while it is running too. :)

[.Markus]

Well i always thought that taking the battery out and running on a/c would cause hard drive failure.

I'm a first time laptop owner. I mostly use my desktop

Nope the guys are right; leaving the battery inside the laptop while using power from mains will not only deplete your battery's performance, but also increases the chances of having a battery failure.

This unfortunately happened with my own laptop battery after being oblivious enough and leaving it inside 24/7.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

Yeah. You can even remove the laptop battery while it is running too. :)

What!? I can remove the battery while its powered on and Plugged in? I always shut down..

[Owen W Veteran]

What!? I can remove the battery while its powered on and Plugged in? I always shut down..

Yeah, they're hot swappable, modern laptops have no problem with this.

[Phenom II]

Worst case scenario is the charger doesnt last as long as it would, the battery will stop charging at 100% and run from AC

I dont trust chargers though, fire while asleep always springs to mind, along with charging unit failsafe and the battery becoming overcharged, ever seen a laptop battery fire ? Youtube it, its pretty scary

[Roger H. Veteran]

Correct. If you leave it plugged in, it will lose power and then it will charge it over and over again when it hits 100%. Thus ruining its lifespan.

There are some laptops that don't have proper circuitry which limits the battery from constantly being at 100%. Thinkpads do this and the Power Manager software has settable limits for when the system will start and stop charging the battery. So you can set it only start charging when the battery is below 75% and stop when it reaches 95%.

For other machines, you can use Notebook Hardware Control and gives you details about your battery plus has some options for setting up charging limits too.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

Yeah, they're hot swappable, modern laptops have no problem with this.

Well I'm using a Lenovo g530.. I'll have to research this.

[Roger H. Veteran]

Well I'm using a Lenovo g530.. I'll have to research this.

No research necessary. You don't have the Power Manager with the iDeaPads as that's a Thinkpad thing but it's 100% accurate. Go ahead, pull out your battery, we'll wait.

[KeeperOfThePizza]

loling. it works. sweet. thank you

[Roger H. Veteran]

OH, forgot to mention. There's one little caveat when you run a laptop without the battery (well some laptops anyways), the CPU's speedstep will be engaged and it will stay locked at the lowest speed so as to not overload the AC adapter. Most laptops come with a 65W adapter (as your Lenovo did). The with all the possible connections you can make to the system (USB charging and all) it would overpower the AC adapter and cause a undervoltage condition which is bad for electronics. So if you want to run at full speed (High performance mode) keep the battery in.

(unless you have the 95 or 145w AC adapter depending on the machine you have. The Thinkpad W700 has a 145W option!)

[KeeperOfThePizza]

OH, forgot to mention. There's one little caveat when you run a laptop without the battery (well some laptops anyways), the CPU's speedstep will be engaged and it will stay locked at the lowest speed so as to not overload the AC adapter. Most laptops come with a 65W adapter (as your Lenovo did). The with all the possible connections you can make to the system (USB charging and all) it would overpower the AC adapter and cause a undervoltage condition which is bad for electronics. So if you want to run at full speed (High performance mode) keep the battery in.

(unless you have the 95 or 145w AC adapter depending on the machine you have. The Thinkpad W700 has a 145W option!)

Thanks for the information, though I never run in high performance mode ever. I dont feel its necessary as i only browse and play music.. I find myself in Power saver 95 percent of the time.

[Roger H. Veteran]

Wow, power saver and laptop cooler? Definitely shouldn't need all that. If you are using power saver the CPU is locked in it's lowest speed anyways, for my Intel Core 2 Duo T8100, that's 800Mhz (normally 2.1Ghz). Sometimes it makes things seem a little sluggish and Windows 7 sucks some CPU sometimes. Run in Balanced mode as it will stay in 800mhz most of the time till you need a lil bit more power. It fires up to full speed then drops back down to it's low speed again. That's why Speedstep is great!