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  • Kate Nyhannyhan@fediscience.org
    Oct 14, 2026, 6:11 PM

    Tech people of Fedi -- will my laptop battery last longer if I restart the computer more frequently?

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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 6:13 PM

    @nyhan unlikely. the main benefit to the hardware that we'd expect from that is if it helps you establish a habit of closing windows you're not using to reduce strain on it, but that's a habit you can do without restarts

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  • 🎃 David Z Pumpkins 🎃diazona@techhub.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 6:59 PM

    @ireneista @nyhan Yeah and there can also be random programs that start up in the background (without associated windows) and consume resources, which can build up over time and act as a drain on the system's resources - including, but not limited to, battery power. It's probably not a big deal unless you go for a truly long time without restarting (like, I dunno, a few months for Windows, probably longer for Mac 🤷), but it does mean restarting every so often is a good habit to get into. (And that's a true restart, not "fast shutdown" or whatever they have these days, idk) But I wouldn't expect this to have a significant effect on the health of the battery.

    From what I've heard, the main thing to do to maintain battery health is to cycle the battery regularly: every so often, let it run down to low power (like 15%), then charge it back up to like 85%. Supposedly it helps the battery last longer than if you always have it fully charged or always at roughly the same charge level. But I don't know the details, or if it applies to all modern batteries or so on.

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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:34 PM

    @diazona @nyhan that's all modern batteries, yes, it's the so-called "memory effect". you actually want the cycle to take it all the way to zero, or as close as you can get, and then all the way to one hundred. we're not chemists but our understanding is that if you don't go all the way you are not helping the problem and could make it worse.

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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:36 PM

    @diazona @nyhan
    what's happening physically is that the electrolyte is crystallizing in a way that prevents it from fully reacting because a crystal can't move around the way a fluid can, and the uh ... other reagent can also do that, at the other end of the charge thing ... and you need to make the reaction go as far as it can to discourage and reverse as much of that crystal formation as possible

    this is our lay understanding, very vague

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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:36 PM

    @diazona @nyhan over time all batteries experience this, and it's why they wear out. a lot of the innovation in battery designs is about how to make it happen as little as possible.

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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:39 PM

    @diazona @nyhan it's been a problem since the early days of batteries, like if you look at 20th-century technology video reels you will find training material on how to maintain early car batteries by cleaning that stuff up physically, but car batteries these days are sealed for safety and everyone just replaces them

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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:40 PM

    @diazona @nyhan in the public perception it started becoming a problem when consumer electronics made the switch from single-use alkaline batteries to rechargeable lithiums, in the early 90s, but that's just because we weren't reusing alkalines at all so the problem didn't come up

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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:41 PM

    @diazona @nyhan so: yes, cycle the battery every so often by using it unplugged until it runs out and then leaving it plugged in until it's all the way full

    but that's not the most convenient thing to do and you shouldn't feel as if you have to do it constantly or anything

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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:39 PM

    @diazona @nyhan it's been a problem since the early days of batteries, like if you look at 20th-century technology video reels you will find training material on how to maintain early car batteries by cleaning that stuff up physically, but car batteries these days are sealed for safety and everyone just replaces them

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  • linear cannonlinear@nya.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:50 PM
    @diazona@techhub.social @nyhan@fediscience.org modern laptop (and smartphone) batteries with lithium chemistries benefit mainly from remaining as close to about 75% charge as possible at all times, preferably not charging above that, and charging slowly instead of quickly. this is why most flagship smartphones and corporate laptops now have options to stop charging the battery when it gets above 80-90% and limiting charging speed

    what @ireneista@adhd.irenes.space described is true of older nickel cadmium (NiCD) battery packs.

    NiMH batteries also exist and are said to have a memory effect, and can exhibit a similar sort of crystallization, but the cause is different. it mostly shows up with any use, regardless of how well you use it. these can, if you are careful, be "shocked" back into a normal condition, but leave this to the people who are experts. this is commonly done by old hybrid vehicle enthusiasts to refresh their battery packs.
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  • linear cannonlinear@nya.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:54 PM
    @diazona@techhub.social @nyhan@fediscience.org @ireneista@adhd.irenes.space cycling the battery from 0% to 100% can help with some things with modern lithium battery packs, but most of the time, what this actually is doing is nothing more than calibrating the microcontroller inside the battery pack that tells your computer what percentage charge the battery has

    (the battery estimator, or "fuel gauge" as it is actually called in the industry, is actually really difficult to get right with lithium batteries in particular, so it basically just guesstimates based on two calibration setpoints and how much current the laptop has been drawing)
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  • linear cannonlinear@nya.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 8:04 PM
    @diazona@techhub.social @nyhan@fediscience.org @ireneista@adhd.irenes.space so with the knowledge that the percentage your computer tells you is only a guess, here's what lithium battery cells really like:

    they like being at 3.7 volts. they tolerate being charged as high as 4.2 volts, or discharged as low as 3.2 volts, maybe even 3.0.

    3.7v is very "sticky", though. you can charge it up to 4.2, but it will quickly drop to 3.7 and stay there for a long time, before eventually sharply dropping once it runs out. this is why the fuel gauge has to guess - it's at 3.7v most of the time.

    but the longer and the more it is outside that 3.7v range, and the harder you are driving the battery while it is, the more chemical reactions will happen that reduce its ability to hold charge the next time around.

    so, what you really want to do, to prolong the battery in your laptop as long as possible, is to stay out of those ranges, and keep your battery in the middle. don't let it fully discharge, and don't let it charge all the way up either, if you can help it (but that's better than running it dry)
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  • linear cannonlinear@nya.social
    Oct 14, 2026, 8:30 PM
    @diazona@techhub.social @nyhan@fediscience.org @ireneista@adhd.irenes.space

    for the record, my qualifications:

    i have been shipping industrial and commercial devices with batteries throughout my ~10 year career in embedded device development and have been responsible for making sure those batteries wouldn't blow up in people's cars or pockets or hands. this has not been the main focus of my job, but i have given it the requisite care and research i think such a thing deserves.

    i rebuild laptop battery packs, and my dad rebuilds hybrid car battery packs. i experiment with new battery chemistries as soon as they come out and build my own chargers from them out of spare parts i have lying around. blowing up batteries this way is very easy. i have not blown up a battery since 2016.

    i currently work in the energy field, with people whose specialties are in such things, including things like large grid-scale battery facilities.
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  • Irenes (many)ireneista@irenes.space
    Oct 14, 2026, 7:50 PM

    @linear @diazona @nyhan er

    our understanding is crystals are the limiting thing on all forms of electrochemistry, it's just charging circuitry tries to mitigate the worst scenarios?

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