Can I use the laptop without the battery?

[stevec62]

Hello,

I bought my first laptop the other day. A 17'' HP Pavillion running Windows 7. My question is can I take out the battery and just run it via the power cable? I heard you can with some laptops but not so with others.

I don't need to bring the laptop with me places so I will be using it like a desktop PC for the most part. I assume that charging and discharging the battery in time will wear it out, so if I don't need to use it on the go I might as well give the battery a rest.

[CherylG]

Yes you can. In fact, it is recommended to remove the battery if the laptop is connected to power all of the time.

[stevec62]

That was quick, thanks a million!

I assume that I should just keep the battery in a cool dry place. Would you have any idea on how much the battery will drain while in storage?

I wouldn't leave it charging with the battery in though. I charge it when it reaches 20% or lower and always unplug it when it reaches 100%. I think this is how I am supposed to do it.

[CherylG]

If you are going to remove the battery and store it, do so at about 40-50% charge. Not sure how much or fast it will discharge since I do use mine.

I use my laptop on power most of the time, but leave the battery in because I never know when I might want to move to another room-to watch a tv show or show someone something on the laptop,etc. I don't unplug when battery is at 100%, but I do unplug and let the battery deplete to around 10-20% once a week or so to keep it functioning well.The laptop is shut down and unplugged at night.My laptop & battery are almost 3 yrs old now and it still works well using this stategy, which has been a surprise actually because batteries reportedly start losing a good bit of capacity after the 2nd yr.

If your laptop will stay plugged in day and night it is a good idea to remove the battery.

[stevec62]

Thanks again for that Cheryl,

At night I always take it off power and put it away. I'll start to use the battery off and on to drain and charge it at least once a week.

I am a bit confused though. I could be misreading this but it seems that your first reply said don't leave in the battery if using the powercord (and not charging per say) but then you say that you leave in the battery and use the powercord most of the time.

Is it a case of I'm using the powercord all the time and you only use it most of the time?

Thanks again. I appreciate the help. I've gone from a mac desktop to a pc laptop and I'm still trying to find my feet.

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

Many people now use a laptop in much the same way as a desktop, at work or home.Such as the laptop is plugged in and rarely/never moved or unplugged nor completely shutdown,simply allowing it to go into sleep mode. This type of use does seem to contribute to battery decline from posts we see here a lot. HP & other manufacturers do recommend removing the battery in such instances. Since I do unplug/move mine at times I keep the battery in and make sure to unplug and allow to discharge & recharge periodically. This has worked well for me.

[CherylG]

HP document on battery:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01297640&tmp_track_link=ot_faqs/top_issues/en_u...=