My laptop battery has been dead for quite some time. The charging program will say the battery is charged up and hooked to the computer but when I unplug the computer, it’s not powering the computer.
Has my battery lost its zero point? If so, would there be a way to restore the zero point? Might it be that my computer doesn’t know that the battery is fully charged? Has the lithium-whatever mixture simply given up the ghost? Are there any suggestions about how to extend the life of laptop batteries, their care and feeding should it happen that I need to get a new one?
Have you tried the maker’s battery cycling program? It runs the battery thru a few discharge/charge cycles. That can help NiMHs. But since it’s a LiIon, it’s probably toast.
ALL rechargable batteries are limited in the amout of charge/discharge cycles they can perform. When a LiI battery is dead…it’s dead.
In the future, try to not charge the battery until it is very close to dead. In theory, a lithium ion battery does not have charge memory, but in four years with the same laptopn and two batteries, the second one lasted longer when I followed this rule.
This site says letting lithium run way down then charging is bad, also lots of little charge ups bad also. Heat bad too.
I try to keep the newer of my two lithium laptop batteries out of the machine except when traveling. If I think to leave it 40% charged rather than full that is supposed to help long life too.
But… I am resigned to buying a new battery every year or two when I cannot watch a DVD on the plane.
Too bad laptop power on planes did not catch on. US Air was doing a good job in their Airbuses. With American you have to call specially if they have it to request a row with some plugs. Most other carriers, forget about it - in coach at least.
