Did you harm the battery in any manner?
Did you harm the battery in any manner?
Hello there,
I received my new laptop at the end of June, but for several reasons (which aren't important here) I didn't power it on until recently. It was just sitting in a box, waiting a while before being turned on. When I finally did, the battery was completely drained, so I had to charge it first. Now I'm curious—would leaving it unused for a long time without charging it down to zero affect its battery capacity? As far as I understand, keeping a device idle for a while is better than not using it at all, and it's usually advised to keep the battery at around 50%.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
Thanks
Definitely not.
These items remain in storage or on shelves for extended periods, sometimes years without any decline.
Are you experiencing any clear problems with the system, or is this just a concern?
I had a laptop lying around for more than a year without use, and when I finally got to it, the battery was dead. Now it’s functioning perfectly. I’ve heard that keeping a laptop discharged for a long time might harm the battery, but in my case it didn’t occur. So there’s probably a small risk, but it seems minimal.
Draining a battery until the protection system cuts off at around 2.5v per cell is equally harmful as completely charging it to 4.20v per cell. Repeating this process regularly will only yield about 500 cycles before the remaining capacity drops to 80% of its original level. Doing both at the same time reduces the total to roughly 300 cycles, yet still lets you use the full battery power each time. Most modern laptops include an option to cap the charge at around 85%, and Windows provides settings that automatically put the laptop to sleep when the battery reaches 25%. Choosing this path extends the usable life to approximately 2,000 cycles (as shown in Figure 6 Case 3), but you only access 60% of the stored energy. This equates to about 5.5 years of daily use before the capacity falls to 80%. Typically, devices come with a 30% charge level due to shipping restrictions; this should last roughly a year before the protection systems activate, provided the battery naturally discharges and only a small amount is drawn during idle periods. If the device remains installed and receives some power while off, the cycle count can drop significantly.