Laptop as a desktop

For those of you that use your laptop as your desktop machine, do you plug it in if you're spending hours on it, or do you run the Li-ion down, then charge it back up?

Take the battery out, plug in.

Many laptops run in a higher performance mode when plugged in. I'd plug in if you can.

Thanks for the opinions!
Lenovo does state any limitations on leaving the AC power attached, but it would seem prudent to discharge and charge every few weeks.

My laptop is plugged in to APC UPS device so I don't really need laptop battery. I don't have to worry about power fluctuations ruining my laptop because it's (external) battery protected. I only use laptop battery every few weeks or when I'm traveling. My laptop battery is as good as the day I bought it and that was 6 years ago. I got 5 hours run time back then. I still get 5 hours run time today.

If you're using it exclusively as a desktop then taking the battery out might not be a bad idea. Sure LiIon are good, but they'll last longer not used than constantly being used a tiny bit - I assume. Though you lose things like backup power if someone kicks a cord.

windpig wrote in post #16266088
Thanks for the opinions!
Lenovo does state any limitations on leaving the AC power attached, but it would seem prudent to discharge and charge every few weeks.

This isn't correct, it's a holdover from the olden days. LiIon batteries really don't care. Read up on battery technology and charging LiIon here.

My Sony laptop has a setting that will only charge the battery to 80% when plugged in and after that will run on AC power only while plugged in. I like it. Wish my Toshiba did that.

I've put the power management into "save battery" mode, it should only charge to 60 to 80 percent.

Thanks again morph2_7, tim and BrickR

I take the battery out unless I unplug the laptop when I'm done with it. It's not worth the fire risk to leave a laptop plugged in continuously. A friend of a colleague lost their house due to a fire started by a laptop battery.

Hi Bob
My wife and I are doing that also for the same reason. We're in Seattle, so the Boeing Dreamliner incident with the battery was front and center.

If you have a mac that's not an option

i plug it in. i don't really have the option to take battery out with my laptop, but if i did i'd take it out too.

I can't take my battery out, but I leave it plugged in anyway. It doesn't get anywhere near as hot as my "old" Acer so I figure there's some unseen power management going on that keeps it from being cooked. Probably similar to my cell phone dock that doesn't hurt my phone being on it constantly.

The safety problems were normally from faulty batteries left in less than ideal conditions (like charging on a bed where all the vents are blocked). We have several hundred laptops at my office that spend 80% of their time in a docking station and if that was dangerous I am sure we'd have seen some problems by now.

tkbslc wrote in post #16295312
The safety problems were normally from faulty batteries left in less than ideal conditions (like charging on a bed where all the vents are blocked). We have several hundred laptops at my office that spend 80% of their time in a docking station and if that was dangerous I am sure we'd have seen some problems by now.

Yeah... everyone in my office has a laptop, and almost nobody moves them out of the docking stations on a day to day basis, including me!