Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.sys.laptops > #2285

Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery?

From "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com>
Newsgroups comp.sys.laptops
Subject Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery?
Date 2015-01-01 12:29 +1300
Organization A noiseless patient Spider
Message-ID <m820ri$t32$1@dont-email.me> (permalink)
References <108337cb-cd49-46bf-8dc6-c37039d77067@googlegroups.com> <m7vgc1$fck$1@dont-email.me> <b02b47ae-8446-4739-84d3-150f273132a1@googlegroups.com>

Show all headers | View raw

Once upon a time on usenet andymhancock@gmail.com wrote:
> Thank you, misfit.  I googled both before posting and after your
> response. I didn't run across anything about saving hard drive heads
> from crashing when the battery runs out, but I did see that one could
> set Power Options' Advanced settings to turn off the hard drive at a
> certainly charge level.
>
> About completely discharging the battery, Windows 7 safety features
> are frustrating my attempts to do so.  It's not enough to create a
> new power plan (say, "Exhaust battery") where the computer never goes
> to sleep.  There are other controls hidden in the advanced power
> settings for Low, Critical, and Reserve battery levels, and the last
> one seems to be the problem -- you can't specify "Do nothing" (at
> least not via the GUI).  According to
> http://superuser.com/questions/622545/disable-critical-battery-event,
> you have to issue the following command:
>
> powercfg -setdcvalueindex SCHEME_CURRENT SUB_BATTERY BATACTIONCRIT 0
>
> *Sigh*.  All I want to do is discharge the battery.  Thank goodness
> for Google.

Just another word or two here; You actually don't want to *completely* 
discharge the battery pack - more like discharge it to the point where there 
is no usable power left in it. (There needs to be some power left to run the 
battery's internal monitoring electronics - if these die then the pack's a 
brick.)

So just 'excercising' the battery by discharging to <5%, fully charging and 
repeating the process (maybe twice) should do it.

Mike makes some good points. Doing this can brick your half-good battery 
pack so deep discharging is usually something I only do when the pack has 
already got to the stage where it's only borderline useful, in the hope of 
regaining some 'capacity'.

Then again I use ThinkPads which allow me to set charging thresholds (I set 
my machine to start charging below 50% and stop at 85% and maybe twice a 
year perform a battery reset through ThinkVantage Power manager). Also I 
store currently unused packs in the fridge at ~40% charge.

Best of luck - and happy new year.
-- 
Shaun.

"Humans will have advanced a long, long, way when religious belief has a 
cozy little classification in the DSM."
David Melville (in r.a.s.f1)

Back to comp.sys.laptops | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2014-12-30 11:53 -0800
  Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2014-12-31 13:35 +1300
    Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2014-12-31 11:06 -0800
      Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2014-12-31 11:54 -0800
        Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2015-01-01 15:13 -0800
      Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-01 12:29 +1300
    Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2014-12-31 12:05 -0800
      Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-01 12:55 +1300
        Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2015-01-01 14:51 -0800
          Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-02 14:16 +1300
            Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2015-01-01 18:11 -0800
              Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2015-01-02 01:15 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2015-01-02 09:34 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2015-01-02 10:46 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2015-01-02 14:25 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-04 12:28 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? andymhancock@gmail.com - 2015-01-03 16:48 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-07 14:47 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2015-01-06 19:38 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-09 13:36 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2015-01-08 17:34 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-10 14:59 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2015-01-09 20:22 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-13 12:18 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2015-01-12 17:20 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-15 13:35 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2015-01-14 17:37 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-16 12:33 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-02-08 14:24 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? mike <ham789@netzero.net> - 2015-02-07 21:02 -0800
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-02-11 11:09 +1300
                Re: Should I completely discharge my laptop battery? "~misfit~" <shaun.at.pukekohe@gmail.com> - 2015-01-03 11:47 +1300

csiph-web