General wear and tear question regarding laptop

[laptopn00blet]

So my PC broke maybe around 6 months ago and I never bothered to get it fixed and just started using my Sony Vaio VPCZ117GG : Z Series.

Specs are;

Intel Core i7-620M Processor 2.66 Ghz with Turbo Boost up to 3.33Ghz, 8GB RAM & Solid State 265GB with Windows 7 64-bit, though you probably already knew that - just incase.

Anyway I'm not playing games on it at all and I'm only using it for websites on Firefox (email, forums, facebook etc). I probably have to charge the thing 4 times a day or something. It's something I've always regretted buying, I wish I just got the i5. I try to get it fully charged, and then I take out the charger and allow the battery to drain until it's ready to be charged again and I repeat that. I don't just leave it plugged into charge all day or randomly charge it.

Because I'm basically taking the laptop with me everywhere now and using it at work and at home for my personal computer I'm worried I'm doing it damage by using it so much? It's always humming as it does, and the left side can get pretty hot, but I don't run games on it or push it to his max. I know I'll probably kill the battery one day but I'm just worried about the processor and everything else?

So long story short, basically, am I harming my laptop by doing basic tasks on it all day and having it turned on for like 15 hours a day?

Please nobody who is overly protective of their laptop and cleans it 5 times a day and does god knows what else to it reply, I don't want to get freaked out by your opinion... >_<

Thanks in advance.

[namaiki]

No need to charge it the way you are doing it. Just charge it when you are using it.. randomly. For me with an i5, battery might last three hours with normal use with the standard battery.

You can use your computer as you wish. Check CPU temp with CoreTemp and nVidia GPU temp with GPU-z. Should be okay if your temps are lower than around 80C.

Your computer should be fine. I leave mine on pretty much 24-7 and it's fine.

[laptopn00blet]

Thanks Namaiki. I do that with my PC but because it's a latop and smaller everything I just wondered. I mean as far as I am concerned it's designed to recieve a flogging on some high end games, which I don't even play, but the thing gets way to freaking hot to even be a laptop, and the battery life is an hour or so also... so it's a complete joke.

$5KAUD of burn your lap and die on you while on the train power!

Oh well it's still pretty kickass. :P

[Steve78]

It's designed to be used, so use it all day if you have to and stop draining the battery. Just leave it charging!

[Valnar]

Same specs as you with I7 620M and on battery mode with battery protection to 80% load, my Vaio runs with stamina mode and reduces CPU power about 3- 4 hours web surfing, office tasks...

When I am at home the Z is always plugged in and after 1 1/2 year battery is like new

[pyr0]

but the thing gets way to freaking hot to even be a laptop, and the battery life is an hour or so

There are definitely running some processes on max load. Use your task manager to check out which they are and kill them. If you need them running, search for solutions. E.g. paste them here so we can help you out. Any Z should be running at least 3 hours idling without getting *hot*.

Also add the adblock addon to firefox in order to get rid of these ridiculously bad coded flash ads that burn up your battery juice quickly.

[Ashers]

^ Also I recommend you use a program to check the battery discharge rate and wear. The program I use is called BatteryCare, but there are loads of them about. With brightness at 1/8 and the computer idling (and a few power saving tweaks), I get a discharge rate of about 11-12W with wireless on, and 9-10W with wireless off (I also have an i7, 8GB RAM, and 256GB SSD). My wear level is 12% after a year and a half of use.

[namaiki]

Ashers, do you use the Vaio Battery Care function? Also which brightness did you set for ~10W idle?

[Ashers]

^ I was a bit wrong with my estimations, and I'd forgotten about some of tweaks that the PC applies on battery power. I've just done a test and reworded slightly. As I write this, the PC is using 11W. That's brightness at 1/8, wifi on but bluetooth off, refresh at 40%, graphics in stamina. I've modified my previous post accordingly. The "batterycare" program mentioned above also automatically does a few changes in battery mode to save power including turning off some services and disabling aero - what difference that makes, I don't know.

I do use the sony battery care function to charge up to 80% (which I hope has reduced the wear) but that won't impact the discharge rates.

[leslieann]

If you set Battery care to 50% you can leave it plugged in without harming the battery. That is where these batteries like to stay. Leaving it at 80% and plugged in is probably easier on the battery than all of that up and down you are giving it. My SZ is several years old at 80% plugged in most of the time, with no issues.

This is exactly what battery care was designed for.