What is the most common reaction of a laptop battery finally dying

[xtnt]

I think my laptop's battery is on it's way out, as the screen's display can flicker on occasion. It does not seem to do this if I remove the battery, although I may be wrong, as it is not frequent enough to be completely sure as yet. Admittedly, the hinges of the old MSI system seem to have seized up, and it will no longer close or open, so the only other thing I can think of is a bad cable that connects to the screen to light it up, or an issue with the actual power supply. Some websites seem to have completely opposite opinions on whether you should always have a battery inserted or not when it comes to battery lifespan. My old laptop is always used at home off the mains, and never for travel. I assumed that keeping the battery in and charged was the best option, and letting the battery gradually run out of power not inserted, might shorten it. Windows now recommends I replace my battery, although it charges and works fine, even when it is off the mains. It does not seem to run out of charge much faster than when I bought it.

So I am wondering what will most likely happen when the battery finally dies if the system is switched on and plugged in at that time? Will the system simply crash and/or switch off, or will the battery die and the system will continue to work as normal, instead now running off the mains? It can run off the mains directly without the battery inserted. Also, are there any good programs to test the battery health and give further information other than what windows offers, which seems to be little more than a recommendation?

Thanks

 

[ffg7]

will continue to run even when battery is dead as you proved by removing the battery & the laptop still worked.

 

[Karadjgne]

2 most common reactions are bios resetting and your pc clock resetting back to 12:00 sometime in 2009 or so. But thats only at boot. After that, pc will be relatively normal except where timestamps are concerned on certain files, and that will get the pc all confused and start all sorts of issues

 

[xtnt]

The laptop is now only used for browsing as it's on it's way out, so no real risk- thanks for the replies