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I work on a HP laptop plugged in most of the time, and after few months the battery went off-duty.

Of course, I could remove the battery each time the laptop is plugged and place it each time I must move where no sockets are around. But I think that:

  • it would be really BORING!
  • The computer would not avail of the useful backup power supply a battery can provide in case of black out.

I think that in 2012, among all the automated tasks a computer can perform, having no built-in charge management software on a laptop is really deplorable for HW houses.

It should simply switch off the battery charging when a safe power level is reached (i.e. 95%) and start recharging it not every five minutes, but only under a certain safe threshold (i.e. 40% - 50%).

In its energy-saving profiles, Windows 7 only allows to set up screen brightness, screen fadeout, screen deactivation and the suspension, not managing any charging issue.

Googling the question I discovered Dell has a "battery life extender" software. Is there some platform-independent similar software for this task?

Thanks.

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Fujitsu laptop has such a built battery management as you described, "switch off the battery charging when a safe power level is reached (i.e. 95%) and start recharging it not every five minutes, but only under a certain safe threshold (i.e. 40% - 50%)" It is a great feature. However, I can not find any software to do it. – user156340 Sep 4 '12 at 20:09

1 Answer

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I suggest you check the BatteryCare app and read their guidelines.
Also read Inner Workings of a Smart Battery at Battery University (a great reference site).

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BatterCare is certainly helpful in keeping tabs on the way that you are currently using your battery, but the burden is still on you to unplug the laptop from the power source. I think the spirit of the question was looking for something that would programmatically disconnect and reconnect the power source based on battery levels. The new DELL computers I've purchased for our company have started to have this integrated service. – bskinner Oct 19 '12 at 20:36
Wow, is there a name for this technical implementation? Maybe it's a Dell proprietary implementation, but I hope other PCs may have it. – Emanuele Del Grande Jan 28 at 9:42

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