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January 20th, 2018 11:00

XPS 13 9360, plugged in all the time or charge it and use it normally?

Hello everyone,

I know that this question has been asked for multiple times. However, as I did my research, many of those answers contradict each other. So, can anyone give me an answer about this issue ? If I use my xps at home for most of the time, is it recommended that I plug my laptop to a power source all the time or should I use it in the same way as I do with my smartphone ?

 

Thank you.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

January 20th, 2018 12:00

With lithium-ion batteries, keeping a battery topped up will allow it to last longer than draining and recharging it unnecessarily.  With older NiMH batteries, discharge and recharge cycles were necessary to avoid the "memory effect", but that doesn't apply to lithium-ion, and these different chemistries could explain some of the contradictions you see.

However, you can do even better.  Li-ion batteries don't like to be maxed out on charge level all the time, which is why Tesla cars for example default to only charging to 80% unless you specifically select a Max Range charge, and even that has to be selected every time rather than being configurable as a default.  Additionally, it's good to allow batteries to self-discharge, which means that instead of the AC adapter keeping the battery charged to a certain level, it runs the system off AC while allowing the battery to naturally drain a bit before charging it back up again.  If you go into your BIOS, you'll find you can set maximum and minimum charge levels.  Since I use my laptop at my desk frequently as well, I have my max set to 80% and my minimum set to 50%.  In this configuration, my AC adapter charges my battery only up to 80%, then it essentially disconnects the battery and continues running the system on AC (not the battery) and allows the battery to slowly drain over the next several days rather than keeping it topped up to 80%.  When it has self-discharged down to 50%, the system charges it back up to 80%.  This is the best strategy of all for battery longevity, but the downsides of course are that a) you only ever use 80% of your battery's capacity, and b) depending on when you disconnect your laptop from AC, you might only have 50% charge.  Lenovo has a utility that allows you to click, "Charge my battery to 100% once", which does exactly what it sounds like, so that if you know you'll need to unplug soon and want a full charge, you can do that without disrupting your normal settings.  Unfortunately, I haven't seen an equivalent feature on the Dell side, so if you wanted to charge to 100%, you'd have to change the BIOS settings and then change them back later.

4 Operator

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2.3K Posts

January 20th, 2018 12:00

Most if not all laptops have smart batteries that can keep the battery healthy regardless of how you use it. If you keep it mostly plugged in, I'd check the BIOS under battery settings for a 'Always Plugged In' setting or something similar. Thats what I use on my Inspiron 7577 as I rarely unplug it.

10 Posts

January 20th, 2018 23:00

Dell has a tool to directly effect these bios setting out of windows. Search for 'Dell Power Manager'. I have it on min 50 and max 80 too and switch it in windows to standard and back if i need a 100% charge.

9 Legend

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14K Posts

January 21st, 2018 07:00

Thanks for that, but unfortunately I just tried to install it on my XPS 15 9530 running Windows 10 1709 and the latest BIOS release, and the installer threw an error that my OS wasn't supported.  Some quick Googling indicates that this error is thrown when the actual problem is that the system model isn't supported.  Bummer.  Nice to know Dell has improved in this regard though, if only for newer systems.  Would still be nice to have a "Charge to 100% once" function though.

January 21st, 2018 14:00

I thought that this feature is supposed to work with all Dell XPS machines. It would be nice if many devices can share the same functionalities as newer machines have.

380 Posts

January 22nd, 2018 01:00

I have Dell Power Manager v2.2.0 on my XPS 9550. There is an option called "Adaptive". It does not really say what that does. It is supposedly "set it and forget it". Not sure if that is any better. It does charge to 100% so I am not sure how it is different from "Standard".

JohnD

2 Posts

September 29th, 2018 16:00

I have this issue with my xps 13 where the battery swelled so much that the trackpad pop up. searched it online turned out it was a wide issue many people had it with both xps 13 & 15 and it is dangerous. What I'am getting to is when people went to Dell to fix this issue Dell claimed that its bad usage by the customer by keeping device plugged 24/7. 

2 Posts

April 6th, 2019 04:00

Yeah, good sharing, people claimed is OK to plugged in 24/7 cause the 'new' li-on battery won't get overcharged. So I plugged in all the time at home when I am using my Acer laptop previously, after a few years, the battery swelled til the track pad pops-up. Now that I bought the new laptop XPS 13, I will charge and discharge it and keep the battery power state not lower than 20% before I re-charged it, learned my lesson.
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