Leave the battery or take it out?

[Kulverstukas]

I am cracking my head on this one for a long time - does it have a negative effect on your laptop battery when you leave it inserted while the laptop is powered on with a charger?

I heard that doing so shortens the battery life - meaning - your battery holds less.
Yeah if you take out the battery, then you have no UPS and if power goes out while the laptop is powered on, you might have worse problems than a shorter battery life.

Maybe it does not matter for newer laptops... I don't know.

Could someone explain deeper how this technology works? I want to deal with it once and for all

Also I have "Acer eMachines E732Z"

[BigE]

Here is what I have been told.

Leaving the battery in slowly cycles that battery. So for me, I have 180 Full-Empty charge cycles under my applecare warranty, and 300 before the battery gets to "80% original capacity". On my battery, usually accumulate about 4 cycles a month if it is only plugged in. Also, leaving the battery in and plugged in all the time messes with the micro processor inside and will make it charge less while saying the battery is full, hence you get 100% charge displayed but less actual charge. Now, it takes about 3 weeks to a month before the micro processor starts to get out of wack, so what I have been told to do on my mac and on my Asus is to, assuming it has been mostly plugged in on my desk, unplug it and use it until it goes to sleep from lack of battery power. Now, wait 4-6 hours, press the power button a couple times in that time so that it gets all the electricity out. Then, plug it in, and let it fully charge, while keeping it off. Then turn on and start the count down for another 3-4 weeks.

I cannot help you with the matter of yanking the battery out though, I do not imagine though that it is any worse for the computer than the power going out when a tower is plugged in.

[Zer0Flag]

I think that was more a problem on older batteries but on the newer one there is no problem when you keep them in your notebook while plugged in your charger.

~zer0

[FuyuKitsune]

It depends on the type of battery. Crystal formation, seen on nickel batteries, creates areas that don't charge and discharge. NiCd batteries deteriorate pretty quickly. NiMH batteries deteriorate at a much slower rate than NiCd but are still affected.
LiPo batteries are barely affected at all. It's so insignificant that you'll never notice, they can be left plugged in all the time. You laptop will be long dead by the time the battery wears out.

Here's my sources on NiCd batteries:
http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/The-Truth-About-NiCd-Batteries/292/2
http://www.buchmann.ca/article10-page1.asp

[BigE]

I think that was more a problem on older batteries but on the newer one there is no problem when you keep them in your notebook while plugged in your charger.

~zer0

I think this might be closer to the truth than anything, especially with the sheer volume of laptops with integrated batteries.

[theellimist]

Oh gawd, Nickel-Cadmiums are the worst, doesn't matter what the application is. But yeah, most modern laptops are going to have a Lithium-Polymer (also called Lithium Ion sometimes) battery, or at the very least a Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NiMH). Like FuyuKitsune said, your laptop will disintegrate before the Li-Po becomes an issue.

[Stackprotector]

Kulverstukas i feel you!!! ,the should create fake batteries so i dont use the battery when just on the net voltage

[ovi_x]

lol  moust  new  laptops  have high tech senzors on  bateries ,they  will  not  charge  it  unless  it's partialy  discarged or totaly discharge , any  way  the  power  suply will have enough  power to charge  your batery and  Pc  at  the  same  time
older laptops  had  that  problem  but  newr  ones  don't but  the ageing  problem will always  have  an  word against  the life  cicle , and  I  found  out  that non  branded  Bateries  do  seem  to  have a  long  life cicle  than  the original 

[LauferBishop]

From personal experience I can say that it is necessary to keep the battery inserted into the laptop when the power is on. Lithium ion batteries lose their strength after a certain period to some 20% of capacity a year. On the old laptop I always just used the power without the battery in order to avoid overheating the battery, however, soon became useless.

On the second laptop I have used the power and battery at the same time in 2 years of using batteries barely had waned. Also please note that the laptop is on an average 15 hours a day.   
The point is that batteries have a number of charging and discharging using both batteries and battery, power is only slightly filled without having to empty the whole time and extends battery life.