Is safe to switch battery while laptop is on and plugged?

Question

I want to know if is safe to switch my laptop battery while I'm using the laptop, with the AC charger connected.

Will the laptop shut down? Will the battery be damaged?

Thank you

Answer 1

As long as the charger is plugged in, the laptop won't shut down. It also won't hurt the cells inside the battery pack.

The only potential risk could be a little momentary arcing when you separate the battery from its socket, which could pit the connector contacts. I don't know if the voltage and current are high enough for that on your computer.

You can tell whether that is happening by putting your nose close to the battery connector, remove the battery, and see if you smell any ozone. If you do, you're better off shutting down before removing the battery. If you don't smell ozone, there isn't enough action to worry about if you need to do it occasionally. I still wouldn't make a habit of doing it all the time, though, because even a trivial amount of arcing would crap up the connector over time.

The exception would be if the system is specifically designed for live swapping (it would probably be discussed in the user manual or you could find out from the manufacturer's customer service or tech support). In that case, you can swap batteries to your heart's content.

People with laptops do it all the time and I haven't come across complaints on forums that they damaged their battery doing it. This is probably more of a theoretical risk, but if you can easily avoid it, why not?