Solved! Should I keep the laptop plugged in all the time or Keep at 40-80% (heavy intensive workloads)

[spiwar]

So, I just bought a laptop. I'll keep this laptop at home most of the time, and will be using it for heavy tasks like video editing, gaming,.. I'll occasionally use this laptop for travelling purposes , and for that purpose I want to the laptop's battery to degrade as slow as possible.


According to Battery University, if you keep your battery at high percentage (100%), your battery will wear out faster compared to a lower percentage (40% in that article). Combine that with heat (which will be case when I perform these tasks), the battery will degrade pretty quickly.

Now my solution (for my previous laptop) to be unplugging the battery when not needed, and running it through the AC adapter, and store a battery at a fair percentage (50%).

This solution can't be used for the new laptop, because it has a non-removeable battery. From here I only have two solutions:

- Leave it plugged in all the time. I won't waste any unecessary charge cycles with this method, because the laptop will use power from the AC adapter when it's full. But then I face the problems above (high percentage + heat)

- Charge/discharge the battery to keep it within a certain percentage (40-60%). It's like how I use my smartphone and wIth this solution, I won't face those problems. But instead I waste charge cycles for a laptop that's going to be kept at home for most of the time.

So my question is, which of these solutions can prolong my battery's lifespan the most? Better yet, if you can provide a better solution, please go ahead. Any help is much appreciated

 

[atljsf]

on new batteries is recomended to never fully charge them and never fully discharge them to make them last longer

but some say that is based on times being charged what matters most

a battery will start to become less and less effective after 2 years, sometimes only 1 year

if the pc will be always on your house, on a desktop, remove the battery if possible

in general, i hit the battery hard and when it dies, i replace it, even if it is a internal one, it can be done

my smartphone, 2 years old, i sometimes chage it to 100% even being at 50% or more, sometimes i leave it turn itself off for low charge, battery stills performs as expected

there is no rule to apply to all batteries that demonstrates that it will or won't last long enough now, there was some sort of rule with old batteries, but this new technology seems to be more friendly than old one, so, well, don't puncture battery and all should be fine for at least 2 years

 

[alceryes]

Newer lithium-ion batteries put in expensive equipment (laptops, phones, tablets, etc.) will usually go 200-300 charge cycles before they start to show any kind of limited capacity. Many laptops also come with companion software where you can limit the amount that the battery will charge up to, while plugged in. My Yoga 710 14" has this software but I don't use it.
# of charge cycles vs. charging it to 100% - If you will be charging it 30+% more often, then you are erasing any kind of preservation gained by not going to 100% on each charge. If your laptop has the companion software then I would use that, keep it plugged in, and don't worry about it. Just remember to charge it fully when you go into road-warrior mode.

 

[Solandri]

Many laptops with a non-removable battery are simply mis-reporting their capacity to Windows to modify charge behavior. If you use a hardware inspection tool like HWiNFO on the battery when it's new, there's a built-in mismatch between the designed capacity and current max capacity. e.g. on my laptop, the designed capacity (and the capacity stamped on the battery) is 63.5 Wh. But it is advertised as having a 61.25 Wh battery, and that's the capacity it reported when new. That's 96.5% of its actual capacity.

So basically when Windows reports the battery is 100% charged, it's actually only charged up to 96.5% (actually it seems to go up to 97%. It never actually reaches 100% charge, thus avoiding the most damaging charge state. On a Thinkpad I owned, its battery reported 5% wear level when new, indicating when Windows reported 100% charge it was actually only charged to 95%.

My old Sony laptop had software which limited charge to 80% max capacity. I turned it on and left it plugged in almost all the time for over 4 years. The battery was still nearly as good as new (about 3-3.5 hours) when I retired the laptop.

 

[atljsf]

windows reports what the battery says, if battery says full, whatever it understands as full, wildows will believe it

same applies to a dead battery, only lasts for 5 minutes but is full when those 5 minutes start to drain it

the tool you mention talks directly to the battery system, and asks for watts, mah

all batteryes will loose some percentage in the first weeks of usage, happens with new batteries and with the old ones too

those are minerals reacting to electricity, they will degrade over time

 

[spiwar]

Many laptops with a non-removable battery are simply mis-reporting their capacity to Windows to modify charge behavior. If you use a hardware inspection tool like HWiNFO on the battery when it's new, there's a built-in mismatch between the designed capacity and current max capacity. e.g. on my laptop, the designed capacity (and the capacity stamped on the battery) is 63.5 Wh. But it is advertised as having a 61.25 Wh battery, and that's the capacity it reported when new. That's 96.5% of its actual capacity.

So basically when Windows reports the battery is 100% charged, it's actually only charged up to 96.5% (actually it seems to go up to 97%. It never actually reaches 100% charge, thus avoiding the most damaging charge state. On a Thinkpad I owned, its battery reported 5% wear level when new, indicating when Windows reported 100% charge it was actually only charged to 95%.

My old Sony laptop had software which limited charge to 80% max capacity. I turned it on and left it plugged in almost all the time for over 4 years. The battery was still nearly as good as new (about 3-3.5 hours) when I retired the laptop.

It would be nice to have software that can limit your charge and use wall power like that, and I have researched for that software prior to making this post. Unfortunately, there's no software like that for this ASUS laptop (GL753VE).
Now I know batteries all degrade over time, and I want to pick a solution that can kill the battery more slowly. Removing it isn't possible because it's a sealed battery. My old Dell Studio 17 did have a removeable battery so I didn't need to worry about this, but now I do.
Now the high percentage isn't really the problem, it's the high voltage state that you put the battery in when you have it at a high percentage that is really the problem. You need to have it at a lower charge to keep it at a lower voltage.

 

[Solandri]

the tool you mention talks directly to the battery system, and asks for watts, mah

all batteryes will loose some percentage in the first weeks of usage, happens with new batteries and with the old ones too

My battery is over a year old, and has reported about 61 Wh capacity (vs the 63.5 Wh on its label) from day 1 til today. It was the same on my old Thinkpad - its reported capacity was 5% less than its labeled capacity on day 1, and was still 5% less a year later when I sold it. Whatever mechanism they're using is built into the battery's circuitry or the laptop's firmware, so as to avoid the need for additional software running in Windows.

Now I know batteries all degrade over time, and I want to pick a solution that can kill the battery more slowly. Removing it isn't possible because it's a sealed battery. My old Dell Studio 17 did have a removeable battery so I didn't need to worry about this, but now I do.

If you really, really want, you can in fact remove or disconnect an internal battery. It requires opening up the case, but once you do that it's relatively trivial to disconnect the battery. This is usually not feasible on the ultrabooks and 2-in-1 tablet PCs (where the case is increasingly glued shut). But most gaming or workstation laptops are still built to have the internals easily accessible.

Some people have modified the battery connection to the motherboard to add a toggle switch which sits outside the laptop. Then you can simply flip the switch every time you want to connect/disconnect the battery.

It's worth nothing though that some gaming laptops use more Watts than their AC adapter can provide. In these laptops, in order for both the CPU and GPU to operate at full power, the laptop must draw power from both the AC adapter and battery simultaneously (your battery slowly drains as you play, even though it's plugged into AC power). If your battery is empty or disconnected, the laptop will downclock the CPU and/or GPU to reduce the power load to a level the AC adapter alone can provide.

 

[spiwar]

the tool you mention talks directly to the battery system, and asks for watts, mah

all batteryes will loose some percentage in the first weeks of usage, happens with new batteries and with the old ones too

My battery is over a year old, and has reported about 61 Wh capacity (vs the 63.5 Wh on its label) from day 1 til today. It was the same on my old Thinkpad - its reported capacity was 5% less than its labeled capacity on day 1, and was still 5% less a year later when I sold it. Whatever mechanism they're using is built into the battery's circuitry or the laptop's firmware, so as to avoid the need for additional software running in Windows.

Now I know batteries all degrade over time, and I want to pick a solution that can kill the battery more slowly. Removing it isn't possible because it's a sealed battery. My old Dell Studio 17 did have a removeable battery so I didn't need to worry about this, but now I do.

If you really, really want, you can in fact remove or disconnect an internal battery. It requires opening up the case, but once you do that it's relatively trivial to disconnect the battery. This is usually not feasible on the ultrabooks and 2-in-1 tablet PCs (where the case is increasingly glued shut). But most gaming or workstation laptops are still built to have the internals easily accessible.

Some people have modified the battery connection to the motherboard to add a toggle switch which sits outside the laptop. Then you can simply flip the switch every time you want to connect/disconnect the battery.

It's worth nothing though that some gaming laptops use more Watts than their AC adapter can provide. In these laptops, in order for both the CPU and GPU to operate at full power, the laptop must draw power from both the AC adapter and battery simultaneously (your battery slowly drains as you play, even though it's plugged into AC power). If your battery is empty or disconnected, the laptop will downclock the CPU and/or GPU to reduce the power load to a level the AC adapter alone can provide.

A 1050ti +7700HQ shouldn't be too much for a 120W adapter.
I think i've come up with a compromise.
Charge to 100% and keep it that way during usage.
Drain to 50% when you're about to turn it off (my schedule is pretty simple, so it should be once each day).