How often should I shut down my laptop?

Nice!
Now we can confirm some of these things are indeed true.
Maybe no manufacturer mentions these things because . . . well they expect things to break so you keep buying things.

Also, i have seen a couple of my friends laptops with dead batteries because they always left it plugged. Brands like Dell, Asus, Sony you name it!

 

I have a Dell laptop that's 8 years old and the original battery will still run the laptop for several hours. But I rarely have the battery installed except to charge it every few months.

 

here is my take on this:

i have laptops that have no battery at all because it died and i could care less for a new one they remain plugged in with NO ISSUES. i have also been told directly by engineering of more than a few companies you can very safely remove the battery and run on ac only power without any issues at all.

the only problem you may run into in doing this is if you have the laptop sleeping or something like that and you have a power loss. you *could* have a loss of a file or document you had open. otherwise there would be no issues at all the laptop would simply say upon next restart that it may not have shut down properly. i am a certified repair tech that handles warranty directly for a number of pc companies which includes the laptop lines. there is nothing that would physically harm the laptop from running without a battery. could be some feature / software (batmon, perfectdisk when on battery system may annoy with a message about the battery etc) that may or may not work by doing so but thats all.

you DO want to make sure the battery that comes with your laptop is charged before storage imo as well as do not leave a newer battery sit for months without charging or when you do go to use it you might find it will not take a charge, also imo from what my experiences are do not leave a battery plugged in constantly for LONG periods of time without shutting down the system and unplugging. there are some apps and programs that will charge the battery as shown from samsung (which is NOT the first to do this in fact compal who is a oem whitebook manufacture used to maybe 5-7 years ago actually have a button on the laptop to do this very same thing for a few models before they switched to software to do this) the reason for this is its prevent the battery from constantly cycling to 100% and then down to 90 to 99% and getting charged up again this does happen on some models. each time the battery cycles through any kind of charge it will reduce the overall life of the battery. some people i know feel different some feel the same way. these are my thoughts and i have been a notebook / pc tech for the better half of my life as well as have worked in robotics for ibm as well as designed and produced my own circuit boards, power supplies, battery circuits etc..

on the original question i agree with many here. sleep is for short term storage few minutes to few hours, hibernate (which i do not choose to use myself) is for longer term storage maybe overnight if you were working on a project etc.. otherwise if i am not going to use it for the night or a day or two i ALWAYS shut it down AND unplug if the battery is fully charged (though almost all laptops made today do have a charging circuit that when the system is turned off they will charge to 100% (some i see only reach 99% which is rare but happens) and then stop charging and have a kind of "shut off" where it will cut power inside to prevent over charging)

i DO NOT recc moving the system while in sleep or hibernate states personally i have seen to many people call me and have a issue in doing so where they have lost data or had major failure. one case even had the system come out of sleep state (bad lid switch on it so when it got moved and put in the bag the system thought the lid got opened) and the system came out of sleep and overheated itself an destroyed much of the board and the hdd because it was simply cooking inside the bag. again this is not the norm but it shows a case where simply putting it to sleep and not shutting down fully before moving it caused basically total failure.

you are welcome to agree or not with me but either way no one will change my thoughts on this and i have no plans to argue about the topic.

 

Thanks zfactor. I learned a bit.

 

sure thing... the reason they use this type of program is to prevent the cycling of the battery, i.e. the charge to 100% then it drops to say maybe 80% then charges back to 100% and on and on.. a laptop battery does have a "life" or x amount of cycles (can vary a bit from battery to battery) but using this as a example shows you will quickly run out of charging cycles as apposed to holding the battery in a state where is just before that % where the charging kicks in. more of a steady state. most companies have this now and just use different names for it but it is designed to extend battery life.

also as a side note if you are at all handy with a soldering iron a battery can be easily and pretty inexpensively rebuilt by buying just the matching cells and rebuilding the battery pack and you can even create a pack that will have a much longer run time by using better quality or higher mah cells. in fact we have 3 roomba's and i just finished doing those this past week. used a razor to go over the break in the case and carefully opened it up. re - soldered the new cells together to fit inside the oem cases and used a small bit of ca glue with activator to hold the battery case back together and since i used a higher mah battery they run for like 2 hours per run now... where even the factory ones would only go maybe 45min.

 

Very interesting!

 

I do the same.

 

No way am I going to answer that without the technical specifications of that specific battery, the transformer/power block and the notebook's power/charging circuits. I note some notebooks will not operate at all without a battery installed - perhaps because the charger the design engineers selected needs an expected load provided when a battery is in circuit.

If every notebook and every notebook battery was the same, your question could be answered. But sadly, there is no industry standard among notebooks for batteries, or their charging circuits. Notebook batteries come in various chemical formulations, voltages, amp-hours, shapes, sizes, and connectors.

So again, follow the guidance for your specific notebook as noted in your manual. Remember, the notebook makers/designers want you to get the most out of your notebook too - so the next notebook you buy is from them.

@Osaban - thanks for clarifying but note that says something different, more specific than japjb's original comment suggested. Samsung clearly states that setting applies "when using the computer on AC power". It does NOT say it limits the charge to 80% at all times. The original comment suggested limiting charge to 80%, period - nothing about when using, or not using the computer with the AC connected. That's a significant distinction for one, and for another, what is best for your specific Samsung notebook may not be best for Joe's Lenovo, my Toshiba, or Julie's Sony.

When the computer is off, and charging, the battery should fully charge.

I note too that using your notebook puts a huge demand on power. Charging a discharged battery does too. So using a notebook while charging a discharged battery can put extreme demands on the charging/power circuits which may result in some high temperatures. So charging may be limited when using the computer at the same time to avoid overcurrent/overheat situations. Again - all depending on the specific notebook/battery/charger used. I note my Toshiba manual states, "Battery may not charge while the computer is consuming full power." It also says to fully discharge the battery once a month - to calibrate the power meter, not for battery life.

Bottom line: There is no one answer for all notebooks and notebook batteries. Therefore, follow the guidance for YOUR notebook as specified in the manual for YOUR notebook.

 

I never shut down the laptop I use daily. When I'm not using it, and I don't have any tasks I need to keep running I put it to sleep. I do this so that when I go back to my computer I don't need to worry about restarting any programs I had running - everything I want open is still open.

If Windows starts having problems - which happens eventually when it has been running for along period of time without a reboot, then I restart. But that is the only time - I don't even restart for Windows updates.

 

I use my laptop as a desktop – eg, it doesn't move! (it has so much crap plugged in, it looks like a patient on cardiac support!)
I operate in sessions – usually 4, sometimes 5 a day. I always turn my laptop off when not in use. No in betweens, I removed Hibernation years ago and never use Sleep.

I note the discussion about the battery. For the first 2 years of laptop usage, I had removed the battery and dumped it in the bottom drawer. Due to several recent power failures, I decided to play it safe and have put the battery back into the laptop. The 2 year 'storage' doesn't appear to have had any ill effects on the battery (so far!)