Geek & Mild by Sean Sperte
Hello. Welcome to the weblog of Sean Sperte. This is an article originally posted on September 24, 2009. Read more →
Marco Ament addresses laptop battery myths, disputing tips from an article appearing on TUAW. He says:
The “memory effect”, or the need to “refresh” or “deep-cycle” the battery by completely discharging before recharging, is stale knowledge from the time of NiCad and NiMH batteries.
But also states:
Due to their chemistry […] laptop batteries usually lose most of their useful capacity 2-3 years after manufacture (not initial use).
Which is, I think, where much of the confusion lies. Most people want to believe there are clear and easy ways to circumvent loss of capacity – the “deep-cycle” technique used to be one of those ways.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as confused as the next guy. Battery technology is one of those strange, abstract sciences that I just don’t understand.
I’ve been under the impression there is an entirely different reason for a deep-cycle these days, namely, to let the software recalibrate it’s measure of the charge so that the battery meter has a more accurate reading.
I’ve tried this a few times when the battery meter on my iPhone seemed to be acting up, and it almost always had a better reading after letting the battery drain completely.
§ Chuck Skoda · 24 September 2009