[Novalug] Laptop Battery

[Roy Wilson]

> Given all this, why don't battery manufacturers make smart(er) batteries that 
> automatically maintain themselves by discharging one cell at a time to 30% or so 
> and recharging while on A/C power?  They would need either an n+1 cell battery 
> (e.g., sell a 7 cell as a 6) or just have the smarts ignore the discharging cell 
> while reporting percent capacity.

  Aside from the obvious (they WANT to sell you more batteries), I've found quite a few pieces of equipment, not just laptops, where the battery is actually a required load or ballast on the power supply / recharger.  If there isn't a battery that CAN take a charge you're dead in the water.

  There are some workarounds for that, but they're all bulky and pretty messy kludges - I've done it with a couple of *old* IBM laptops just to strip the drive(s), but I wouldn't attempt it with a newer machine if batteries are still available.