[Ham-Computers] Laptop Battery Question

[Herb Gerhardt]

OK, here is another question regarding laptop power.

I usually (99% of the time) operate my laptop while connected to shore power
(120 VAC) and hardly ever use the laptop battery.  So, needless to say, the
laptop battery dies within a year or two and I can not run the laptop on
that battery for more than a few minutes any more.  It still does prevent
power glitches since the laptop battery will work for at least 5 minutes to
take care of any power company switching transients.

So the question is:  Is there any way of preserving the supplied laptop
battery to make it last longer while connected to shore power?  Is there
perhaps an internal setting that will shut down the continuous charging of
the battery while it is connected to shore power?  Is it possible to
insulate the charging pins to the battery?  You normally can't just unplug
this battery since this battery contains one or two of the laptop feet to
keep it level.

I have an old laptop battery from my original laptop that was not installed
when it was stolen in 1999 and it is still good.  I charge it every month or
two with an external charger and use this battery for powering some of my
ham radio equipment when I need a good heavy power source.  So it appears to
me that it is the continuous charging of the battery that kills it within a
year or two.

Do to my limited application for needing the laptop battery, it is not
economical to purchase a replacement battery since they are very costly.
When mobile, I generally use a small inverter (the $20 Costco one works
great) and plug the supplied switching 120 V power supply into it.

Herb, KB7UVC
NW APRS Group, West Sound Coordinator
Our WEB Site:  http://www.nwaprs.info