Hi everyone... i'v been disturbed by something a friend of mine told me about the battery life of the MBP. He told me that i should take off the battery from the MBP while using it connected to a power source with the magsafe connector, because if i leave the battery on it, it would result on gradually having the battery life reduced. Is this true?... what's the best way to use it?. Thanks in advance!
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Question about MBP battery life
- Thread starter Keopx
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That's not true. If your remove the battery, dust might accumulate inside the battery compartment. And if you accidentally disconnect MagSafe (which is very likely), your MBP will hard shut down putting strain on hardware.
Go to http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html for full details on how to keep your battery healthy.
Go to http://www.apple.com/batteries/notebooks.html for full details on how to keep your battery healthy.
You could run it without the battery, but your computer will run a lot slower because your laptop actually needs the battery in to run at full power. It doesn't do any significant amount of damage to have it plugged in. Batteries wear out eventually. It's inevitable. As long as you don't abuse your battery and calibrate it every now and then, you're battery will be fine.
Mine stays plugged in most of the day, and it doesn't affect it a bit.
Your friend if a bit paranoid. Heat is the worst enemy of the battery and to combat it use a program called Fan Control. Boost the fans up a little and it will keep the laptop cooler. I have a 182 cycles in almost two years on my MBP 17" and the battery is still 90% as good as new. I can still get 3 1/2 hours with wireless on and screen about half. Yes you might prolong your battery life a little by removing it but if you knock your power cord off of course your going power off. Also you will only be running on one core off the power cord, at least so I am told. That is a big deal to only have one of your processors working not both.
As others have posted, your computer will not run at full speed without the battery plugged in. It is true that the battery performance will decrease if you continuously leave it plugged in but you can decrease the battery drain by letting it fully drain once/month and then recalibrating the battery. This will prolong battery life to near perfect levels. More details on this method are available on the apple website about battery health. Bottom line: Keep it plugged in and then drain it once/month to maintain perfect battery life and ability to use your computer at full speed. On a side note, the drain that will happen over time is not insignificant but not too extreme either. After having a laptop for 8 years that was almost always plugged in and never drained it still retained 65% of its charge.
You should also use your battery a few times a month. This will keep it running correctly. Or it should at least. I never really used my battery and just left my MBP plugged in. Bad idea cause when I did use the battery I only got an hour or so.
But when I got a new one and fully discharhed and re-charged it again it's still working fine after 6 months.
But when I got a new one and fully discharhed and re-charged it again it's still working fine after 6 months.
Doubts cleared
Thank you all for your answers... i will keep the battery on then, and will give it a monthly full discharge... (mhh
...i think my pal envies me and wanted my battery to be broken... haha, kidding) ... oh, and also thanks for the advice on the fans application... a co-worker once told me about it, but he didn't remember the app name), so i'll look for it. Thank you all again, and have a good day... hasta la próxima =)
Thank you all for your answers... i will keep the battery on then, and will give it a monthly full discharge... (mhh
...i think my pal envies me and wanted my battery to be broken... haha, kidding) ... oh, and also thanks for the advice on the fans application... a co-worker once told me about it, but he didn't remember the app name), so i'll look for it. Thank you all again, and have a good day... hasta la próxima =)