Do charging and using laptop simultaneously have any effect?

Question

Should I use my laptop while it's charging (i.e. by directly plugging to the power) or I should use the laptop in battery and charge later. Which one is good for laptop's battery-health?

Answer 1

I think the best is to charge your battery first then if you wanna use the machine you can remove battery and use while it is plugged to the AC power. This method can really help your battey last longer.

NB: this method only works when you are guaranteed that there is no load shedding in yo area as you might lose unsaved data when the power cuts off.

Comments

OK, what about my first part of the question is asking whether there is any effect on my laptop if I charge and use it at the same time.

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this is old information really - its no better to remove battery or leave it in with current laptops

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You can use it while its charging but when its full u remove the charger jst like a phone.

Answer 2

the effect might be invisible, but its there.you will discover it after sometime, you will notice your battery life will depreciate bit by bit

Comments

You mean it does have an effect on battery, right?

Answer 3

removing the battery is the same as using your laptop while its fully charged and plugged. Minimise recharge cycles and you will preserve your battery

Comments

Ok, thanks for the answer

Answer 4

the answer is that it totally depends on the battery technology in use

older laptops used Nickel Cadium or Nickel Metal Hydride technologies (NiCd and NiMh respectively) which suffer significantly from something known as memory effect

memory effect is when you only partially discharge a battery and then recharge it continuously - do it enough times and then soon your battery will only retain the charge of the portion you keep discharging and "lose access" the other portion of battery life, the same applies to leaving it plugged in at 100%

without getting into too much chemistry this is due to the chemical makeup of the battery, if its not used fully crystalisation occurs over time inside. there are sometimes various things you can do to try and regenerate some battery life such as placing the battery in a deep freeze overnight then letting it come back up to room temperature before plugging back in but nothing generally will fully restore a battery suffering from memory effect

modern laptops use Lithium Ion Batterys which do not suffer from memory effect - in fact quite the opposite - the more often  you fully discharge them the more you lower the usable life of the battery or lower its "health" its better to always plugin when you can

initial versions suffered badly if you left them at 100% all the time and never went to battery however this has pretty much been overcome, although its still better to use lithium ion batteries on battery mode on a regular basis to keep them active

its actually not a good idea to constantly unplug and plugin batteries unless you are changing them between spares/backups etc the more you remove and replug the battery the more you wear the electrical contacts which means a poorer physical connection which means possible other issues (including arcing and fires in extreme cases) which become more expensive to repair

to answer the should you use laptop while charging - it makes no difference to the health of the battery, you may notice however that when you are working the laptop hard (eg gaming) that the battery will charge slower as the laptop is diverting more power from ac to cpu and GFX rather than the charge circuit