Hi, I have a Mac Pro Notebook and I don't tend to leave it plugged in all the time as I don't have it set up in one spot, except when I play music and I need to plug the speakers in.

I was just wondering, when you are not using your notebook do you have it plugged in at all times? Is this the right thing to do? Or should you just leave it plugged in until its charged up then unplug?

Thanks!

Leave it plugged but take away the battery!

Take away the battery? Then everytime I want to take it somewhere else I have to put the battery back in? That seems like a pain...

Any difference between a notebook and a laptop? If not, I leave my laptop plugged in all the time, only unplugging it when I pack it up to travel.

It is a pain but it means that your battery will last something... otherwise it happens like with cell phones batteries... if you recharge them often when they're not completely finished, they keep "memory" of the charge and every charge lasts less...
The other possibility is charging your notebook and use it unplugged, but this will also mean that you'll have to buy a new battery after some time.

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It is a pain but it means that your battery will last something... ... if you recharge them often when they're not completely finished, they keep "memory" of the charge and every charge lasts less...

There is a lot of discussion on this subject on the internet and I am not sure that there is any consensus about the "right" answer to this question. I certainly don't remove my battery (my laptop is my only computer and it is always on) and I don't think I am going to start doing it now.

From BatteryUniversity.com

Lithium-ion is a low maintenance battery, an advantage that most other chemistries cannot claim. There is no memory and no scheduled cycling is required to prolong the battery's life. In addition, the self-discharge is less than half compared to nickel-cadmium.....

My sense is that--even if there is some negative effect due to the constant charging and recharging--it is going to be negligible over the useful life of the laptop....maybe 3-4 years for me. I have been using laptops since the late 1990s and I have never had a problem with a battery even though the computers were always plugged in with the battery in place.

Am I the only neurotic freak who unplugs everything at night? The only things that are plugged in are the fridges, the satellite (as it records during the night but I unplug it if we go away for a day or a week or whatever) and the alarm clock.

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Am I the only neurotic freak who unplugs everything at night?

Probably not.....

Lamps too?

I don't think there is anything freaky about it. We've talked here and there about saving energy and the facts confirm that those little red lights draw a lot of it.

Here is an article I found about how to prolong laptop battery life. It says not to leave it plugged in all the time, but also not to discharge it all the way very often.

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Avoid frequent full discharges because this puts additional strain on the battery. Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory. (In this respect, lithium-ion differs from nickel-based batteries.) Short battery life in a laptop is mainly cause by heat rather than charge / discharge patterns.

There are several other good tips and pieces of information in that article.

- Roz

I was told by the IBM salesperson when I bought my last laptop that the memory effect is no longer an issue with modern laptops. I generally have mine plugged into the power most of the time (regular power failures notwithstanding) but always take the power cord out of it at night.

For some reason I cannot adequately explain I don't like the idea of sleeping with a laptop plugged in about 3 feet from my head. I have recently been advised to unplug it at night to avoid the power surges which happen more frequently then - but maybe that is just here.

I only take the battery out to swap to the spare battery or to try and get the thing going if there is a problem.

I don't, primarily because of concerns about power surges. When I leave for more than a day, I unplug my power strip from the wall, which protects my desktop, printer, etc. The laptop I use mostly on the road, but when I do use it at home, if it is plugged in, it's usually not protected (I plug it in where it is convenient, not where I have a surge protector!). I absolutely unplug it when I'm not using it!

Anne

My laptop has been on mains power continuously for just over 7 months.