Battery affects performance!

[james6000]

I have the older white macbook: 2.16GHz and had done a lot of research on the effect of running the laptop without the battery. As, most of the time, the laptop is used with it's lid closed and with an external monitor, I had wondered about how long term battery life is affected with it always plugged in and charged.

Cutting to the chase, I was watching something on iplayer in HD, and found that when I removed the battery, video playback was poor to say the least. But then, as soon as the battery was inserted back in, it was perfect again. Has anyone ever noticed this?

As I had read on other forums & websites, running the laptop without the battery does not normally effect performance of the laptop. So would this be a one-off with my laptop or is there an explanation to this?

Thanks

 

[Tallest Skil]

The processor is downclocked to about 1.25 GHz with no battery. Leave it in.

 

[jav6454]

Obviously. Apple has a safe guard that under clocks the CPU if a battery is missing.

 

[gr8tfly]

No, it's normal. Apple reduces the clock when operating on a/c, without the battery installed. I believe it drops to 1GHz.

MacBook and MacBook Pro: Mac reduces processor speed when battery is removed while operating from an A/C adaptor

 

[james6000]

Wow, never knew that. Whenever I read it elsewhere, people always seemed to say performance decrease was minimal.

So would my battery life be hugely decreased leaving it fully charged all the time? I do try to do a fully discharge/recharge at least monthly.

 

[miniConvert]

It's not going to do wonders for the battery, leaving it in and fully charged all the time, but these batteries have a limited life span anyway. If some time down the line you decide you want to use your laptop away from the mains a lot more than, well, you may need to get a new battery if the life on yours has become too short.

 

[james6000]

It's not going to do wonders for the battery, leaving it in and fully charged all the time, but these batteries have a limited life span anyway. If some time down the line you decide you want to use your laptop away from the mains a lot more than, well, you may need to get a new battery if the life on yours has become too short.

Very true, maybe I should just stop worrying about that and enjoy what I've got! It's likely that I will be buying a new one anyway, before this one totally dies out on me. Just want to maximise resale value I guess.

 

[gr8tfly]

Wow, never knew that. Whenever I read it elsewhere, people always seemed to say performance decrease was minimal.

So would my battery life be hugely decreased leaving it fully charged all the time? I do try to do a fully discharge/recharge at least monthly.

That's all Apple recommends - just use it once a month.

http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html

They have an iCal calendar to remind you, if you like. Remind me to charge and discharge my notebook battery