What Happens if You Leave a Laptop Plugged in All the Time While Battery Connected

What Happens if You Leave a Laptop Plugged in All the Time While Battery Connected 60w55tq

Is there anything you can do to prevent the problem or help your batteries last longer? In this article, we'll answer these questions and more.

While in the past it was unwise and even dangerous to leave your laptop plugged into an external power source all the time, new laptops are mostly using either lithium-polymer or lithium-ion batteries that won't take more charge than they can handle. Still, there are a few things you should know about leaving your laptop plugged in.

The power coming from an external source is used directly to power the laptop instead of it first passing through the battery.

If charging your laptop result in excess heat coming off of the bottom. This is not normal by product of charging, if the temperature gets too high or remains elevated for too long, serious damage can occur.

If the battery ever gets so hot that it risks exploding from over-pressure, the battery vent hole will release the extra pressure. The battery will probably be useless afterwards, so this is something to avoid.

What Happens if You Leave a Laptop Plugged in All the Time While Battery Connected KDvPUV7

From above chart, we can see that keeping a battery at a certain charge and at a certain temperature over the course of a year can significantly diminish its overall capacity. If your laptop already has a hard time keeping cool, leaving it plugged in and at 100 percent charge is probably a bad idea.

Lithium-ion battery packs are expensive, so if you want to make yours to last longer, here are some things to keep in mind:

  • A lithium-ion battery pack loses only about 5 percent of its charge per month, compared to a 20 percent loss per month for NiMH batteries.

  • They have no memory effect, which means that you do not have to completely discharge them before recharging, as with some other battery chemistries.

  • Lithium-ion batteries can handle hundreds of charge/discharge cycles.

  • They start degrading as soon as they leave the factory. They will only last two or three years from the date of manufacture whether you use them or not.

  • They are extremely sensitive to high temperatures. Heat causes lithium-ion battery packs to degrade much faster than they normally would.

  • The lithium-ion batteries lose 5 percent of their power every month when sitting idle.

  • Lithium ion chemistry prefers partial discharge to full discharge, so it's best to avoid taking the battery all the way down to zero. Since lithium-ion chemistry does not have a "memory", you do not harm the battery pack with a partial discharge.

  • Manufacturing dates are important. If you are buying a new battery pack, you want to make sure it really is new. If it has been sitting on a shelf in the store for a year, it won't last very long.

  • After month of non discharge usage of lithium-ion battery, should be partially discharge, i recommend 25% percent discharge before recharging the battery.


Kepping the laptop plugged in all the time wont cause any battery issues but partially discharge is recommended every month to help your batteries last longer.