[CentOS] Battery condition tools CentOS/Dell

Wed Aug 5 16:41:37 UTC 2009
John R Pierce <pierce at hogranch.com>

Kwan Lowe wrote:
> 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.
>   

assuming a reasonably modern (last 5 years?) laptop with a lithium-ion 
battery, your battery's useful life is the shorter of

    ~400 full discharge/recharge cycles (+/- 200)
    3-5 years from date of manufacture

 after that, the battery charge will last about half as long as when it 
was new,  and it will continue to deteriorate.