Should I remove my battery if I use my Vaio as a desktop computer?

[ancsoca]

I've been trying to find an answer, but everyone says different things, so I'm hoping on a Sony forum people know what they're talking about...

A little bit more about my situation. I got the laptop a year ago, I've been charging it to 100%, then unplugging it till it went down to 15%... Yesterday a window popped up and said that the battery is only "fair" now. I've heard that they don't "live forever", but I still want to use it in class next semester, so I don't want it to go down to "poor".

I've enabled the battery care function to 50%, but I still don't know if I should keep up the unplugging and recharging cycles (now that it's 50% it became a little bit annoying....) or just leave it or remove the battery (I don't really need it right now...). Or go back to the old way?

Please help me out,

thanks in advance!

[Blencogo]

No simple answer to this one!!

There are two factors to consider: -

1.  Lithium Ion batteries have a finite number of charging cycles before they begin to deteriorate - this is usually about 300.  By leaving your battery connected, you are using up valuable charging cycles.

2.  If you remove your battery your Vaio still needs some power to maintain settings, time & date etc.  This means your CMOS battery inside the Vaio is doing the work of the main battery and will fail sooner.

So, you need to balance the cost of a new battery every year against the cost of replacing the CMOS battery every 3 years.  Your decision but personally I take the battery out with about 40% charge and keep it somewhere cool and dry until I am using the Vaio without power.