[JRandomFreeper]

Don't take it down past 25%

/johnny

[Blue Highway]

ping for your comments

[KarlInOhio]

What type of battery is it? Lithium ion (most likely now for a laptop), NiCad, or nickel metal hydride?

I really don't have any words of advise for LiIon batteries because they don't seem to have the same pickiness about charging the other two had.

I will say don't expect the $40 battery to last as long as your original. You might get lucky, but every time I've gotten a cheap battery off of eBay it wasn't even worth what I paid for it. I have bought good batteries for 60-70% of the OEM retail price, but when you get below half price they generally don't have the life claimed or last the number of recharge cycles.

[angkor]

I like the idea of.... using the battery to have it fail so I can get a replacement before the warranty period expires.

If you used it in the intended manner, it might not fail for 2 or 3 years, and then you wouldn't have to go through the hassle of abusing your warranty rights.

[paterfamilias]

I don’t know if this is correct, but read this link

http://www.laptop-battery.org/batterytips.html

[6ppc]

I’m no expert, but if I recall correctly, lithium-ion battery life is tied to the number of charging cycles, not how deep the battery is discharged. Bottom line, to maximize life you should run plugged in as much as possible and only run off the battery when you really need to.

Again...I think this is correct, but I could be wrong.

[papasmurf]

We have 3 laptops in our house. One is a Sager that I purchased 9/04, the next is a Toshiba Tablet PC purchased in 2006, and the last is a generic Toshiba for the wife in early 2008.

My first Sager battery was dead in about 7 months. Then I was told, since I leave it on nearly 24x7 (as we do all 3), to remove the battery, and only charge it once a month.

That has served us well, and we haven’t had a battery issue since, although, I did have to buy a new AC adapter for my Sager. (it runs real hot)

Good luck.

[TheNext]

♦ Lead acid lasts for 10 years not 2, with it's minor burn risk (liquid) ♦ Partial discharge is counted as a cycle ♦ Add a hardware switch to disconnect battery from charging circuit when power is available ♦ batteries should be cycled at least once a month ♦ supposed to get 1000 cycles, however capacity drops off after couple years ♦ look up the battery type: % percent discharge recommended ♦ charge to 100% each cycle ♦ - battery technology is still an annoyance, no free lunch