Disabling battery charge on a dell laptop

[ARoman51]

Hi, I have a DELL Latitude E4200 ultra portable laptop and I see on the bios that you can disable battery charge with a fn key combination, my question is: if I disable the battery charge this way, does it mean that I can leave the laptop plugged in all day with out damaging the battery?

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

Yes, I imagine that's why the option is there. It's the frequent re-charging to keep the battery fully charged which eventually "kills" the battery so that it can't hold a charge any longer.

However, you'll need to keep remembering to go back into BIOS Setup every few months to re-enable battery charging, don't let it stay completely flat for a long period (it will lose charge gradually over time, even when not in use) as that's just as bad as over-frequent charging.

The other alternative is leave battery charging enabled and just remove the battery instead ( as I do). Put it back every few months to check that it's charge percentage is not getting too low.

 

[ARoman51]

Yes, I imagine that's why the option is there. It's the frequent re-charging to keep the battery fully charged which eventually "kills" the battery so that it can't hold a charge any longer.

However, you'll need to keep remembering to go back into BIOS Setup every few months to re-enable battery charging, don't let it stay completely flat for a long period (it will lose charge gradually over time, even when not in use) as that's just as bad as over-frequent charging.

The other alternative is leave battery charging enabled and just remove the battery instead ( as I do). Put it back every few months to check that it's charge percentage is not getting too low.

Thanks a lot for your input, i can confirm this information as i recently asked a DELL representative over chat and said the same to me.

I prefer the option to have the battery in all the time since i move a LOT i need to have it ready all the time and since the charge option can be enabled on windows with a fn combo i will keep the battery in and when it reaches about 80% i will enable the charge some times so it will not go empty ever.