Well I use mine as a desktop replacement and it’s always plugged in. It has a 2.1 speaker system and my Canon all in one printer/scanner connected to it. The older laptop running Windows 8 is used more portably and only plugged in when the battery gets low. It had been used as a desktop and never unplugged for about 7 years and after that the battery wouldn’t hold a charge when not in use and would only run the machine for about 45 minutes after being fully charged. I bought a new battery for it that is a knockoff of the OEM battery and only cost me $17 versus the $90 that HP wanted. It works perfectly, holding a full charge and running for about 2 hours on the battery. That’s what it was rated at when new. It’s best to let the battery run down fully periodically and then charge it with the machine off.
This all depends what battery type you have.
With the older Ni-Cd rechargeable batteries, it was recommended to fully discharge the battery regularly before recharging to keep the “memory effect” from reducing the batteries overall run time.
The newer Li-ion batteries however, are basically the opposite. The smaller the depth of discharge before recharging, the longer the battery will last. Fully discharging the battery is actually detrimental to performance.
I respectfully disagree. The battery I talked about is a Li-ion type and in the paperwork for the new one it says to let it run until the machine gives a low battery reading of 10% or less once in a while before recharging. It will not be completely dead at that point. If you leave it on until it goes completely dead, (like for a day or two), then yes you can damage it. I shouldn’t have said “fully” in the previous post but rather “almost fully” ;D
http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/helpdesk/the-care-and-feeding-of-li-ion-batteries/124
I’m not sure what you’re disagreeing with. The article you linked says to recharge your battery when it’s 40-50% discharged.
No, later on in the article it says to let it run down until the computer suspends to reset the circuitry.
Periodically calibrate your battery. Most batteries that have a "fuel gauge", like those in laptops, should be periodically discharged to zero. This can be accomplished simply by letting your computer run until it reports a low-battery state and suspends itself. (Do not let your computer deep discharge, as I'll explain in the next item.)The gauge that measures the remaining power in your laptop is based on circuitry integrated into the battery that approximates the effectiveness of the battery’s chemical compounds. Over time, a discrepancy can develop between the capacity that the internal circuitry expects the battery to have and what the battery can actually provide. Letting your computer run down to zero every month or so can recalibrate the battery’s circuitry, and keep your computer’s estimates of its remaining life accurate.