On Wed, 2009-08-05 at 09:43 -0400, Kwan Lowe wrote:
Hello all: Does anyone know of a tool/project that will allow me to read the battery condition (not the charge status) on a Dell laptop battery? Under XP there is a utility that warns that the battery is still holding a charge but that the battery is degraded and should be replaced.
Also, not sure if this is possible, but I would like to control how the laptop charges the battery. I tend to have the laptop plugged in most of the time and this constant charging state is apparently very bad for battery lifetime. So a charge/drain cycle is supposedly better.
---- most laptops have Lithium Ion batteries and are not bothered by 'memory effect'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_batteries
I think with Lithium Ion batteries, all you do by charge/drain cycles is shorten their life.
Craig