NY wrote
Rod Speed wrote
NY wrote

Talking of batteries losing their ability to hold charge... I'm not sure
what I do wrong with laptop batteries, but they only seem to last about
2 years before they stop holding their charge. Each time, I try to plug
the laptop into the mains only while I'm actually using it (to keep it
fully charged) or when the battery has become discharged, and I run it
off battery to about 1/3 charged every so often even though I have
access to mains. I don't leave the laptop on charge 24/7 for months on
end. And yet my battery dies after a couple of years whereas other
people who abuse their batteries by leaving the laptop on permanent
mains seem to get much longer battery life.

Yeah, that's what I do, leave it on charge 24/7/365.25 and only very
occasionally unplug the charger and use it on the battery for a while
when I need the portability.

Hmmm. I wonder what I'm doing differently that the battery in each of my
laptops has stopped holding charge after a couple of years.

Might just be a much better charger design with some
that doesn't overcharge the battery when used like that.

Evidently leaving it on charge most of the time (both when it's running
and when it's shutdown) with fairly infrequent use on battery hasn't
affected yours.

I notice that some laptops sold nowadays have a battery that is
non-removable, so if the battery does the same thing, that means the
laptop is buggered after a couple of years, assuming the battery is
soldered in. I have no qualms about going inside a desktop PC to replace
faulty parts, add more RAM etc, but I'm wary with laptops because they are
a nightmare to get the case off, even after removing all the screws, and
even more of a nightmare to get the case back on afterwards.

And most tablets are even worse, glued together and impossible to get
into to change the battery without buggering them, specially Samsungs.

A good laptop should, in my mind have:

- DVD drive

I don't use those anymore.

- doors for RAM sockets and HDD to be accessed
- mic, line in and line out (headphone) sockets
- a touchpad with buttons that don't make a loud mechanical click (my
Samsung is terrible for this)

And a proper keyboard, rather than the steaming turds you
now get that are the result of the stupid obsession with making
the damned things as thin as possible for no good reason.

Same with phones, makes no sense to make the damned things
as thin a possible and end up with lousy time between charges.

Sadly the first three are getting more and more scarce, and some touchpads
have horrible buttons - either vague an imprecise or else with a very loud
clonk-clonk noise every time you left-click. I loathe and detest the
"tapping" feature that is the default in Windows, because I find that I
accidentally left-click as I'm repeatedly moving my finger from one side
of the pad to the other to move the pointer right the way across the
screen, so I turn that OFF! And if I'm using the laptop on a table or
other hard surface, I use a proper mouse.

I don't but I accept that I am very unusual in that regard.

I prefer a proper full touch screen now but don't use laptops
for full time work much at all anymore. Still use a desktop and
a phone and occasionally a well designed tablet.