Battery is an important part of the Laptop. Because the mobility of the laptop exactly depends on the battery life of the laptop. If the battery has good charging capacity and if it can supply power for a long period the battery may be consider as good battery.
There are many types of batteries available in the market. Following are the most popular and common types of battery.
Lithium-ion battery is a new technology of batteries. Most of modern laptops uses Li-ion batteries. It is lighter weight and higher performance. Li-ion batteries are not susceptible to “Memory Effect”. We will later talk about the “Memory Effect”. Initial condition will effect good life time of Li-ion battery.
Nickel-metal Hydride (NiMH) Batteries
Although it is susceptible to memory effect, it is less susceptible to memory effect than NiCd Batteries. It should be conditioned once per 2 or 3 week. Condition is fully discharge the battery and fully charge it again.
Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) Batteries
NiCd is the oldest battery technology. NiCd battery has good performance. But, it is tremendously susceptible for Memory Effect. Let’s say when we charge the battery we charge it to 90% of the battery capacity. If we doing this over and over again battery tend to keep a memory as 90% is the fully charged state of the battery. Then battery won’t charge in to its full capacity. If we always discharge the battery to 30% of the battery capacity, battery keeps the memory as 30% is the fully discharged state. This is the “Memory Effect” incident and this will reduce the use of battery recourse.
Now, Lest discuss how to care our laptop battery.
- When you use the battery first time, you should fully charge and discharge (condition cycle) for first three cycles.
- Keep the battery contact terminal clean always. This helps maintain a good connection between the battery and your laptop.
- If the battery will not be in use for a month or longer, it is recommended that it be removed from the device and stored in a cool, dry, clean place.
- Use the AC (alternative current) adapter always you can. There is no any overcharging happen. When the battery completely charged, in every laptop there is mechanism to disconnect the battery from the AC current. Then the laptop will work from the AC power.
- Condition the battery for every 2 or 3 months. Don’t charge the battery so that the memory effect happens. This bullet point is not applicable to Li-ion batteries. Li-ion batteries don’t want to condition frequently and those are not affected to Memory effect.
- Use power management plans available in your system. Turn down the LCD brightness. Set screen saver blank to small time limit as much as.
- Use suitable RAM size to your laptop. If you have a RAM which is large enough to store your all frequent data, it will save large amount of power. Using hard drive to fetch data always is power exhaustive process.
- Close all unused software and processes.
- Don’t open short-circuit the battery terminals. It will damage the battery permanently.
- Don’t open the battery cover as the cell contents expose and don’t modify the battery casing.
