On Mon, 2003-02-10 at 07:42, Roberto Sanchez wrote:
> If your battery is more than 12 months old (could be more or less
depending
> on how often you charge/discharge or run on just AC and whether or not
you
> completely drain it before recharging) it may just be time for a new
> battery. Li-ion batteries develop a memory over time which prevents
them
> from holding as much charge as when new. The "gas guage" in the BIOS
could
> also be out of calibration.
"The Li-ion batteries prefer a shallow discharge. Partial discharges
produce less wear than a full discharge and the capacity loss per cycle
is reduced. A periodic full discharge is not required because the
lithium-based battery has no memory."
- http://www.buchmann.ca/Chap10-page6.asp
You are thinking of older NiMH or NiCd batteries.
> The best thing you can do is first double check your BIOS settings and
make
> sure you don't have anything out of the ordinary and that the machine is
not
> set to auto power down at certain battery charge level. Then fully
charge
> your battery (or as full as you think it will get). Then completely
> discharge it by booting (with a floppy) to an OS without any power
> management (Win 95, 98, or NT4.0 or any version of DOS is what I
recommend)
> and let the machine run until it shuts down on its own at the end of the
> battery. Recharge and repeat the cycle 3 or 4 times.
This is an excellent way to totally ruin a Lithium ion battery.
--
Joe Wreschnig <piman@sacredchao.net>
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