Laptop battery useage

[Ronnie Gauthier]

On Fri, 02 Jun 2006 13:48:52 -0600
"Michael Hipp" <michael at hipp.com> wrote:

> > From: HarryG <hg57 at sc.rr.com>
> > To: "SxS, " <linux-users at linux-sxs.org>
> > Subject: Laptop battery useage
> > Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 15:35:36 -0400
> > 
> > 
> > This may be a dumb question, but on my laptop, I can and do plug in the AC
> > power cord 98% of the time.
> > 
> > Should I run on the battery only every now and then and drain it down and then
> > recharge?  Or just do what I am doing?
> > 
> > I am trying to maximize the life on it.
> 
> Generally on Nicad and NiMH batteries it is best to do a full discharge once and a while. Helps prevent that so-called "memory effect".
>

Have you ever seen a battery take a memory set outside of an industrial setting?
Not likely. Here's why. To take a memory set a battery needs to be discharged to 
the same level each time and then recharged to the same level. After repeated 
cycles of this the battery gets lazy and only uses from the discharge level
to the charge level. This usually happens when someone makes their own automatic 
charging system and the bottom control and the top control are hard set and not 
random within a range.

If a Ni battery is overcharged you in effect "recondition" the battery.

Ronnie