Question What is the difference between disabling battery using Device Manager and physically removing your laptop battery?

[vikaskumar2299]

Hi. I'm using Windows 10. If I want to use my Dell Inspiron 7570 laptop only with laptop charger, there are two options:

1) Remove laptop battery physically
This option works fine for me. I just need to plug in charger all the time so it doesn't shut down accidentally without turning off important apps.

2) Disable battery in Device Manager (Microsoft ACPI-Complaint Control Method Battery) (Not to be confused with "Uninstall Device drivers for this device")
I'm not fully sure about this option. I have disabled it right now while battery is still inside laptop and my laptop is working fine, the battery icon in taskbar is gone. I even restarted my laptop and it's still disabled and working fine as long as charger is plugged in.

So I want to understand why can't we just use this method instead of physically removing battery?

There are many old posts here and there where people say "The only way to use your laptop with charger only is to remove battery physically. If you don't remove it, it will still be charged no matter you disable it or not". I wonder why do they say this?

 

[helpstar]

because it's very hardware related how the device is constructed. usually it will charge nonetheless, because an internal schematic will provide power to the battery and no software switch could cut it.
is your charging led on while the laptop is off? then your battery will be charged as well.

 

[vikaskumar2299]

because it's very hardware related how the device is constructed. usually it will charge nonetheless, because an internal schematic will provide power to the battery and no software switch could cut it.
is your charging led on while the laptop is off? then your battery will be charged as well.

Yes charging LED is on which makes sense that battery is being charged when laptop is off. However, we never know what's happening when laptop is on and battery is disabled.

I just received answer on Microsoft forum that both things are exactly same. You can disable it or remove it physically. In both cases battery won't be charged. Now I don't understand who do I trust.

 

[helpstar]

you could measure the input voltage to your battery while the charger is plugged in and windows is running.