Windows 10 Battery Longevity

Hermitkrab · Dec 17, 2016

I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop, L55 series, Windows 10 Anniversary OS. This laptop, and my previous Toshiba, stops battery charging at 80%. I imagine this promotes battery longevity. That being the case, is it desirable to regularly run on battery only until it's almost run down, or does that not make a difference? Thanks.

BIGBEARJEDI · Dec 17, 2016

Pat's right about that for the most part. Laptop batteries begin to lose their Mojo after 1 year or so; some will last as much as 5 years and keep an 85% charge or better for at least a couple of hours (long enough to watch a DVD or streaming movie like Netflix or Amazon Prime/Fire. I usually have my Customers replace their laptop batteries >1 yrs if there is any degradation below a 2 hr. charge hold time. In other words, if you can't want an entire movie on your existing laptop battery without plugging it into your MAINS (Wall Outlet), it's for sure shot and time to replace it. That's my Rule of Thumb on that.

Best,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

patcooke · Dec 17, 2016

Modern batteries don't suffer from the "memory" problems which earlier ones did. I'm very cavalier with mine - It's plugged into the mains more ofen than not and only runs on the battery as and when I've no access to mains. I cannot remember ever having to replace a battery (maybe I'm just lucky.)

Hermitkrab · Dec 17, 2016

patcooke said:
Modern batteries don't suffer from the "memory" problems which earlier ones did. I'm very cavalier with mine - It's plugged into the mains more ofen than not and only runs on the battery as and when I've no access to mains. I cannot remember ever having to replace a battery (maybe I'm just lucky.)

Thanks, Pat. So, does charging to 80% better than 100%, as far as the battery goes?

BIGBEARJEDI · Dec 17, 2016

Pat's right about that for the most part. Laptop batteries begin to lose their Mojo after 1 year or so; some will last as much as 5 years and keep an 85% charge or better for at least a couple of hours (long enough to watch a DVD or streaming movie like Netflix or Amazon Prime/Fire. I usually have my Customers replace their laptop batteries >1 yrs if there is any degradation below a 2 hr. charge hold time. In other words, if you can't want an entire movie on your existing laptop battery without plugging it into your MAINS (Wall Outlet), it's for sure shot and time to replace it. That's my Rule of Thumb on that.

Best,
<<<BIGBEARJEDI>>>

Hermitkrab · Dec 18, 2016

Thanks, Pat & bigbear. I mostly use my PC plugged in, but still want to keep the battery in the best possible shape. On my particular Toshiba laptop the entire bottom cover needs to be removed for battery replacement. My older Toshiba had a battery compartment that was easily accessible. Anyhow, my battery probably won't be harmed by keeping the PC plugged in most of the time, or so I'm gathering from this discussion.

patcooke · Dec 21, 2016

I'm sure it will be the least of your computer worries - my lifelong experience as a computer professional is that Sod's Law rules supreme but I press on always believing my glass to be half full!

Neemobeer · Dec 21, 2016

Yeah I leave all my laptops plugged in all the time. Many of them today are smart enough to stop charging when full. Besides that, most laptop batteries I've seen are around $40 so not a huge investment if you do need to replace one.

Windows 10 Battery Longevity

Hermitkrab

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BIGBEARJEDI

patcooke

Microsoft MVP

Hermitkrab

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BIGBEARJEDI

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Hermitkrab

Extraordinary Member

patcooke

Microsoft MVP

Neemobeer

Cloud Security Engineer

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