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My Sony Vaio laptop has a built-in program called "Sony Battery Care" which provides a functionality to hold battery at certain levels of charge while operating. For example, I've set it to 50% and the battery is always kept at that level while on AC power. This mode prevents battery degradation and is more effective as I usually use my laptop with AC power.
I'm looking for a similar program to use with other laptops with Windows OS; preferably a free one.
3I don't think there is much to be gained from keeping it as low as 50%. I have my ThinkPad's Power Options software to start recharging only under 80%, and to charge until 95%. I avoid the battery to get completely drained as well. This all results in batteries that keep their capacity very well over time. – paradroid – 2010-12-02T09:20:45.203
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@paradroid: LiIon batteries age with time, even when not used. The aging process runs faster if the battery has more charge. See e.g. this page: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries. Thus all other things being equal, a LiIon will live longer if it is kept at a charge level below 100%.
– sleske – 2010-12-02T09:23:26.357@sleske: Yes, I know. That site was part of how I researched how to keep the batteries for optimum life. – paradroid – 2010-12-02T10:44:42.737
well perhaps that sony vaio model designed its batteries to charge only until 50% to the longer life, but using 50% of capacity is not so logic (it is equal when a car have 50 liters and you put only 25 if it would economize something - you economize some coins, but have to stop more times to "recharge") – kokbira – 2011-05-17T23:58:34.050
3i have a Compal laptop with same feature (a software which charges battery to a preset level - 50%, 75% or 100%). I keep it on 50%, and laptop has a hardware button for "full charge" when I go somewhere and know that I need a full battery. For 5 years of usage battery life degraded from 3h15min to 2h15min. – Goran Obradovic – 2012-02-10T07:27:52.330