Dell Vostro 3400 Laptop running ubuntu 11.10

[Patrick Asselman]

On 2012-08-21 08:56, Kaushal Shriyan wrote:
> Hi,
>
> When i am in office, i usually connect my laptop to power source with
> battery connected. Will that degrade the batttery? Any best 
> practices?
>
> Regards,
>
> Kaushal

More of a hardware related question imo, but okay...

Your battery is probably Lithium-ion, most laptop batteries are. That 
type of battery stays best when it is sort of half-charged most of the 
time. Then again every battery has a limited amount of charge-discharge 
cycles that it can take, so you do not want to cycle it all the time. 
Not to mention the hassle it would be to keep it not fully charged... 
plug in, unplug, plug in, etc. When storing the laptop for a longer 
period without using, it is good to have the battery not fully charged, 
if possible.

So my advice is to just keep it connected and live with the fact that 
all batteries will degrade over time. It may be prudent to buy a 2nd 
battery if you are concerned your battery will degrade too much before 
your laptop reaches its end of life.

But please check your manual. There are many many myths about 
batteries, and many types of batteries. Usually the manual tells you 
what is the best practice for your particular battery.

Best regards,
Patrick Asselman