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From: RnR on 24 Feb 2010 08:00
With the main purpose to save money say over 5 to 10 years, what do
you think is the best way to prolong the life of a dell laptop (E1405)
battery ? After that time, I'd probably replace the laptop with a new
one and want to use the same method to prolong its battery too.

If it matters, I'd say I use this laptop 95% off the wall and use XP.
Assume that my useage won't change and I'll stick with XP on this
laptop. Currently I have an old and newer battery but even the new
one is deteriorating sitting most of the time on the shelf. I use it
mainly when I make the laptop portable. Most of the time, I keep the
old one in even tho it's only good for 5 to 10 minutes so it provides
me the chance to save my work in case of a power outage.

I would consider a UPS if that's what it takes to save money over the
long haul but I know that its battery is good for 4 to 5 years before
it needs replacement but I think their batteries are cheaper than the
newer laptops. For this question, lets ignor the cost of electricity
in case someone brings that up.

What do you guys think?

ps-- maybe I need to consider a netbook in my future since my needs
are not demanding <grin>
From: William R. Walsh on 24 Feb 2010 09:43
Hi!

> With the main purpose to save money say over 5 to 10 years, what
> do you think is the best way to prolong the life of a dell laptop
> (E1405) battery ?

I'd keep it away from temperature extremes, don't let it sit on AC
power all the time, and drain it periodically (to keep the calibration
intact).

This seems to be working for me. I bought two batteries with my
Latitude D800 in March 2005. At first I balanced their use but now I
use one much more than the other. Both still perform very well,
although the more frequently used battery only lasts about 3-3 1/2
hours instead of the 4 it used to manage.

Quality of the charging circuit factors into it as well, but you can't
always know this. My 2006-era Macbook has what I'd consider a poor
quality charging circuit (a common problem until Apple started
revising their charging circuit design in 2009) and its battery is
basically shot after 150 cycles.

Buy a laptop with a laptop processor in it, and not a desktop
processor that's been shoehorned into the system.

> If it matters, I'd say I use this laptop 95% off the wall and use XP.

Why do you want a laptop if that's the case?

Maybe you'd do better to get a new battery for your current system and
spec out a newer desktop?

> I would consider a UPS if that's what it takes to save money
> over the long haul but I know that its battery is good for 4 to 5
> years before it needs replacement but I think their batteries
> are cheaper than the newer laptops.

A laptop doesn't need a UPS if it has a working battery. Even if that
battery only loosely fits into the "working" category, it should still
ride through power outages pretty well.

UPS batteries are generally cheaper than laptop batteries, but only
for the very smallest of UPS units. Anything much greater than 550VA
capacity or so is likely to want a $60 or better battery.

New batteries for a cheap UPS will often cost as much as the unit did
when it was new. (Sometimes you can get a deal on eBay, new, sealed
UPS batteries do show up there from time to time.)

How long a UPS battery lives depends upon the quality of its charging
circuit and how good your power is. It also depends to a certain
extent upon the design of the UPS--a better quality unit will be able
to handle spikes and sags in power without going to the battery. I
replaced an old battery in an APC 650VA UPS in 2008. The original
battery was dated 1998. That battery had an easy life, as it was never
heavily loaded and only had to run for a short time while a generator
came on.

Don't expect that a UPS will offer long runtime. It certainly can
*when lightly loaded* but if you run close to the maximum rating, you
may only have a minute or two. Cheaper designs may also be unable to
stand extended runtimes at really low loads just because they're not
built to take it.

Generally, you can get between 4 and 6 years out of a UPS battery.

William
From: RnR on 25 Feb 2010 07:06
On Wed, 24 Feb 2010 06:43:21 -0800 (PST), "William R. Walsh"
<wm_walsh(a)hotmail.com> wrote:

>Hi!
>
>> With the main purpose to save money say over 5 to 10 years, what
>> do you think is the best way to prolong the life of a dell laptop
>> (E1405) battery ?
>
>I'd keep it away from temperature extremes, don't let it sit on AC
>power all the time, and drain it periodically (to keep the calibration
>intact).
>

I'll give this a try. Normally it doesn't see extreme temps except
from room temp to operating temp. I guess I'm depressed seeing a
newer battery lose it's capacity so noticeably tho I have read this is
normal. I was just hoping for the most economical way to age these
laptop batteries since these aren't too cheap.

Appreciate your feedback.
From: Bob Villa on 25 Feb 2010 09:04
RnR

Check this deal:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=ddpduq3&cs=19&dgvcode=ss&c=US&l=EN&m_1=AGOBH&dgc=SS&cid=39716&lid=1003783

bob
From: Bob Villa on 25 Feb 2010 09:19
On Feb 24, 7:00 am, "RnR" <rnrte...(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> With the main purpose to save money say over 5 to 10 years, what do
> you think is the best way to prolong the life of a dell laptop (E1405)
> battery ?  After that time, I'd probably replace the laptop with a new
> one and want to use the same method to prolong its battery too.
>
> If it matters, I'd say I use this laptop 95% off the wall and use XP.
> Assume that my useage won't change and I'll stick with XP on this
> laptop.  Currently I have an old and newer battery but even the new
> one is deteriorating sitting most of the time on the shelf.  I use it
> mainly when I make the laptop portable.  Most of the time, I keep the
> old one in even tho it's only good for 5 to 10 minutes so it provides
> me the chance to save my work in case of a power outage.  
>
> I would consider a UPS if that's what it takes to save money over the
> long haul but I know that its battery is good for 4 to 5 years before
> it needs replacement but I think their batteries are cheaper than the
> newer laptops. For this question, lets ignor the cost of electricity
> in case someone brings that up.
>
> What do you guys think?  
>
> ps-- maybe I need to consider a netbook in my future since my needs
> are not demanding <grin>

A bit off-topic but check this:
http://dealnews.com/Dell-Inspiron-Zino-HD-Athlon-1.6-GHz-Mini-Desktop-PC-for-249-13-s-h/349257.html

bob
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