On Wed, 21 Dec 2011 16:56:29 -0800, John Andersen wrote:
On 12/21/2011 3:06 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
2. Dell includes a utility with Windows 7 to disable the battery charging circuit. The point of this is to stop trickle charging the battery when it's full - pulling the battery out leaves the laptop without battery backup and isn't the ultimate goal. The goal is to charge the battery and then switch off that circuit, which is supposed to extend the life of the battery itself (that's what the info I've read indicates the purpose is).
If Dell needs software for that you probably won't find it for Linux.
First, Lithium Ion batteries are never trickle charged. Period. Ever. Its dangerous to do so.
LiIon batteries are brought up to charge and then the charger cuts off entirely, and does not come on again until its below 90% or so. This is done by the charging controller chip-set.
Since this is a relatively new design I'd be surprised if Dell went for software charge control, and suggest this is simply a way to use the battery while leaving it plugged in, so as not to be charging and draining at the same time. This is not a critical item, because the charge controller manages the battery quite well without it.
Interesting, that's good to know. I'll admit that I was guessing about it trickle charging, shows that a guess isn't a good route to go. :) The utility in Windows is the Quickset utility. I honestly was surprised at the idea that they didn't charge and then turn off the charger myself, since it sounded like other hardware manufacturers do that. But I also know that the Thinkpad wiki talks about similar functionality in some of the newer Lenovo machines. Jim -- Jim Henderson Please keep on-topic replies on the list so everyone benefits -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org