Is this bad for my computer?

[simeezee]

Before I went to bed last night, I had 13% battery left. I did not plug it in to charge. This morning I woke up, the battery is completely dead. When I press the power button, the battery LED flashed a few times and the computer did not turn on. So I'm just wondering if this is bad for my computer and/or battery?

[funbob]

No. Leaving it in a discharged state for a prolonged period of time can damage the battery but running it all the way down and then recharging it has no ill effects.

[MiGs]

Your laptop won't turn on because the battery is dead, this is normal.

There is alot of mysticism around batteries and when to charge them, use them, freeze them, whatever. Basically, the new lithium ion batteries can be used fully and charged fully and be used anytime in between without any adverse affects. There are still people that will live and die by old thinking that the battery should be fully charged out of the box before any use, and then depleted fully after that to mark its first full cycle or whatever.

In the end you'd be better off by charging the battery to 100%, take it out of the computer and leave it until you want to use it, that way its not charging all the time getting hot and used 24/7. But that's just my thinking.

[funbob]

In the end you'd be better off by charging the battery to 100%, take it out of the computer and leave it until you want to use it, that way its not charging all the time getting hot and used 24/7. But that's just my thinking.

Very true. Modern lithium batteries couldn't care less about being broken in, properly cycled, when you recharge them or any of that junk. If you use the computer primarily plugged in most of them time, it is advisable to take the battery out as constantly keeping a lithium battery at its max voltage does encourage faster corrosion of the battery chemistry. Even then, I wouldn't worry about to too much because by the time the battery is worn out, I'm probably going to be ready to upgrade to the next great thing or I'll just deal with it and get a new battery.

[WD-40]

Pulling the battery out might help preserve the battery, but it doesn't do your netbook any favors.

When using the machine plugged in, the battery acts as a built in UPS. Not only does this help you keep from losing your work in a full power outage, it also helps avoid damage during brownouts.

Considering that the battery typically costs about a tenth of the cost of the netbook, I'm leaving mine in.

[PMS421]

While the battery may offer some of the features of a UPS make sure you have surge protection when you can.

I have had a power cut spike fry the power/charging circuit on a Toshiba laptop. This was many years ago but I still recall losing it for a week while it went away for repair.

[kettysimpson]

This is not a good habit to keep your laptop battery on and sleep without turn off it. Your battery life will reduce because of this so always go after turn your battery off. So it will be good for your laptop as well as your battery life.