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Old 03-15-2005, 05:44 AM  
Nathan
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If you have the oh-so-great Li-Ion batteries that most new notebooks have, and you really want long battery life, while you do not use the battery, but have it plugged in, remove the battery and put it in the fridge.

Sounds stupid, I know... but there is a simple reason why all new notebooks come with Li-Ion batteries. The advertised reason by all manufacturers of course is, they have no memory effect (causes older batteries to think they are full when they are not, have to be deep-discharged to remove the effect, its rather simple to do that though).

One thing noone tells you though is that Li-Ion batteries degenerate with ever charge-cycle AND they degenerate over time too. Reason is that the electrodes get eaten up by the Lithium Ions and eventually just do not exist anymore. An average Li-Ion battery can lose around 20-33% of its max-mAh in just one year. Most totally stop to work after 3-4 years, so you have to buy yourself a new battery, or most likely a new notebook because the manufacturer obviously changed their notebook design twice over the past 3 years.

Putting them in the fridge helps slowing down the degeneration of the electrodes a bit and gives your battery a longer life.
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