Laptop on AC (plug) power w/o battery?

[AAAAAANIMAAL!]

hi i have a 700m.

here's my 1st question; does it do any harm to my laptop if i run it plugged into the wall (on AC power instead of battery), if my battery isnt plugged into the laptop.

it does work, i've tried it. with no battery it will boot and run.

why would i want to do this. well each battery has a set number of discharge/recharges before there's noticeably less that the battery can hold. i think it's about 300 for the 700m.

now i know if the battery isnt fully charged and you have it plugged in it will run the computer and charge the battery at the same time.

for question 2; does the laptop completely cut off the battery when it is fully charged so current isnt actively running through it while you run the laptop plugged in?

if not, is it using battery power and recharging the battery at the same time?

[coriolis]

The battery stops charging once it's full.


Laptops can run without it's battery with the AC, and it's fine, does not harm. Just remember to put the battery back in if you need to take the laptop out, before you just pull the A/C adapter out. Or if there is, hopefully not, a power failure, you'll lose what you are doing.

And yea, 300~ charges is the average for most batteries nowadays.

[AAAAAANIMAAL!]

so if i left my notebook on 24/7 w/ the battery attached it wouldnt suffer from cell erosion?

if it stops charging does that mean power is cut off from the battery completely?

im trying to figure out how it knows to stop charging it. i know it does because the charge light goes out; but does that mean it doesnt draw power from the battery at all. im assuming it's hardware based.

i was also wondering about the mini-PCI wifi card. it's built into the system and FUNCTION + F2 supposedly cuts it off. now in this picture i see 2 soldered wires, does anyone know if they relate to the FUNCTION + F2? does it completely cut power to the card?, does it just tell the BIOS not to recognize it & it has it's own on/off CMOS? or is this some dell software based command?

i'm wondering because there are times when i want no network access to my laptop and the only way i can see that as being possible is cutting the power to the card or removing it.

http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/show...m_upgrade1.jpg

[Venombite]

If the feature is Fn+F2, that will turn the card off (pretty much like pulling the cable form your wired lan). It will disconnect you from the network. It will not search for other connections when it's off/disconnected. The 2 wires you see in the picture are the antenna connectors. These cables loop around the LCD cover so you can pickup the signal (just like an antenna on a radio).

You can always goto Device manager and disable the device if you want. This will guarantee that there is no connection to any wireless device, but personally, that's a bit overkill, hitting the Fn+F2 should do the trick.

Regarding the battery charging, I'd recommend pulling the battery out of the unit when finished charging. Most poeople say there's only a 1-2 year life span for Li-ion batteries, well, I've had mine for over 4years, almost 5 and it's still giving me 1.5hours of use (on an old P3 notebook, so that's pretty good). The last time I checked, I think the wear level was only 3-4% (after 4-5yrs). I think someone posted a question about the wear level and their's was at 10+% for a battery under 1 year old. They kept the battery in the unit 24/7. So personally, I say take it out when you're not using it.

-vBulletin-

[Henry Su]

Wow. I would suspect that the reduced lifespan has to do with the heat produced by the laptop during operation. Or does it have anything to do with it simply being connected to the laptop? Oh well, I will keep a lookout on the wear level of my battery. I guess it's a tradeoff between battery health and a guaranteed power supply.

[azntiger1000]

wow. umm dont be too serious about your battery life. use it normally. you dont have to take it out all the time when you are on the ac. if you leave it alone it will die too. so just use it regularly and dont worry about it. if you keep thinking about it, it'll ruin your laptop experience.

[sdaigneault]

Regarding the battery charging, I'd recommend pulling the battery out of the unit when finished charging. Most poeople say there's only a 1-2 year life span for Li-ion batteries, well, I've had mine for over 4years, almost 5 and it's still giving me 1.5hours of use (on an old P3 notebook, so that's pretty good). The last time I checked, I think the wear level was only 3-4% (after 4-5yrs). I think someone posted a question about the wear level and their's was at 10+% for a battery under 1 year old. They kept the battery in the unit 24/7. So personally, I say take it out when you're not using it.

-vBulletin-

cool, very good to know.

[leefall]

I intend only using my laptop as a desktop with surge protector because it takes less room than a desktop. I am not looking forward to replacing battery when it dies, approximate cost $150 when this is only used as desktop. I emailed Gateway & this is their response:
"In response to your concern, you can use
your notebook using AC adapter, however, we do not recommend you removing the battery and using the notebook with AC adapter only. The notebook is designed to be portable and with battery plugged in. In addition, using AC adapter only may cause the system to overheat since it is getting and using direct power from the power outlet." Question, when battery dies must I replace battery or can I still use as desktop with dead battery installed?

[.com]

These things are good to know. By the way if one doesn't travel much, then there is no real need for the battery, meaning it can be taken out of the laptop.