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

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

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

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 for setting up screen brightness, screen fadeout, screen deactivation and the suspension, not managing any charging issue.

Is there a way to accomplish this?

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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, 2012 at 20:09
  • By accident, I discovered that on my Levono B490, if I charge to full, then drain to 95%, then plug in, the laptop remains in a "not charging" state all day (95% available (plugged in, not charging)). I can plug out any time and start draining the battery (which drains from 95%), but it never charges back to 100% again unless I drained the battery first (I suppose below 80% or so). I think this is great to avoid overcharge while still having battery backup, except I'm not sure if it's a safe practice.
    – ADTC
    Oct 8, 2013 at 11:42

2 Answers 2

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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.
    – bskinnersf
    Oct 19, 2012 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.
    – yodabar
    Jan 28, 2013 at 9:42
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If you do find a program that can do true battery management, I would be interested also.

However, this program doesn't exist. So, nothing is better than the good old manual method: discharge the battery to about 80% unplug it from your computer, store it until you need it. This will double (at least) the life of your battery.

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