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OP writes: > my System76 Galago Pro had its second experience with a dead/swelling battery. I used to have a Dell laptop which had exactly the same problem wi
by kees99 6y ago
OP writes:
> my System76 Galago Pro had its second experience with a dead/swelling battery.
I used to have a Dell laptop which had exactly the same problem with my first battery. Running laptop plugged into AC adapter 99% of the time was one reason for that happening, I imagine.
Fix was ridiculously simple - I bought a new battery (original) + a knock-off power adapter (a more expensive one - hoping it's built well enough so it wouldn't burn my house down - and as luck had it, it didn't). Knock-off adapter doesn't speak magic Dell charging protocol, so laptop runs off of it, but refuses to charge.
I kept original AC adapter for (infrequent) travel only, all the other time powering from a knock-off. Worked a charm - second battery held something like 90% of charge 3 years later, with no signs of swell whatsoever. Compare that to first battery, that lived on constant top-up charge (original adapter), and after less than a year swell up to the point it wouldn't clip in anymore.
- yourad_io 6y agoDespite bad intentions, DRM helped once
- icefo 6y agoYou can tell your Dell laptop to not charge the battery to 100% in bios now. Since mine is often plugged in I enabled this setting and the capacity seems to stay stable (I've had it for two years now)
- kevinkeller 6y agoHave you measured the loss in battery capacity (battery wear), to quantify the stability? ThinkPad and some Asus laptops also have the feature. In fact, my Asus laptop stops charging at 60%. Not sure if that's significantly better than stopping at 80%.
- rewoi 6y agoYou can set charging options in BIOS. It is possible to disable battery completely.
- Shorel 6y ago>I used to have a Dell laptop which had exactly the same problem with my first battery. Running laptop plugged into AC adapter 99% of the time was one reason for that happening, I imagine. Except Dell laptops have a configuration in the BIOS to better handle to be always plugged. I changed this BIOS option, and it basically never uses or charges the battery unless AC is off. So, the fix is even more ridiculously simpler than you thought.