Wrinkles Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I have an old DELL XPS Series laptop, vintage approx 2003. Excellent laptop for its time. I use it only for playing FLAC files, occasional music DVD, not much else. The battery holds a charge for maybe 10 minutes when charger is unplugged. I do not take it anywhere. It stays in the stereo cabinet ready for use.. I am concerned about batteries as they get old and possibly leak and could damage the laptop. Will laptops continue to work when the battery is removed and not replaced as long as you keep power to it from a charger? And if I remove power to the laptop after the battery is removed, does it lose anything that the battery would have kept refreshed? Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 BATTERIES are cheap enough. If the laptop powers up on just the charger, it should be fine. I'm not sure if all laptops will, but it won't hurt anything to try. I'm sure someone with more computer savvy than me will chime in here shortly though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 When I bought my first laptop in about 2000, they listed a battery as an "option" so they did consider that you do not need a battery. If you do not want to buy a new battery, just check the one that you have every so often. What OS do you use on the old laptop? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schu Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 op... it's not that kind of battery Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrinkles Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 Tigerwoodhorns, The OS is Windosw XP Pro. CECAA850, I'll give that a try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrinkles Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 Schu, Are you saying the battery is not the type that would leak? And there is not a concern with having this 10 year old battery constantly trying to take a charge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CECAA850 Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 And there is not a concern with having this 10 year old battery constantly trying to take a charge? The charger is constantly running I would imagine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Schu, Are you saying the battery is not the type that would leak? And there is not a concern with having this 10 year old battery constantly trying to take a charge? It is the type that can catch fire. Does it get hot even though it isn't taking a charge? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrinkles Posted December 12, 2013 Author Share Posted December 12, 2013 Oldtimer, I'll have to get back with an answer later. Are you asking if while I am using it for the 10 minutes before it shuts down, if it gets hot at the point of shutdown? When I turn it on, it has usually been unplugged from the charger for days maybe. And it does not come on. What if the answer to your question is yes? The cooling fan is on constantly when powered up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I had an old dell which finally bit the dust. The cooling fan was on most of the time so that's probably normal. If it were not running you'd have a problem. With mine, the motherboard shorted out bringing on the blue screen of death. What I'm asking is if the battery gets hot while you are on a/c power. Personally I would replace the battery if you think it still has a few more years of life to it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iRONic Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I have an old DELL XPS Series laptop, vintage approx 2003. Excellent laptop for its time. I use it only for playing FLAC files, occasional music DVD, not much else. The battery holds a charge for maybe 10 minutes when charger is unplugged. I do not take it anywhere. It stays in the stereo cabinet ready for use.. I am concerned about batteries as they get old and possibly leak and could damage the laptop. Will laptops continue to work when the battery is removed and not replaced as long as you keep power to it from a charger? And if I remove power to the laptop after the battery is removed, does it lose anything that the battery would have kept refreshed? Thanks. Some do, most don't. Depending on the state of charge on the CMOS battery it shouldn't. Why not get a new battery? ~ $20 - $30. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I haven't seen a laptop yet that will not power up when the battery is removed. If the laptop is always plugged in, most batteries will end up failing. They need to be cycled (discharged/charged). We have a faculty member with a MacBook Pro (have to take to the dealer to get the battery replaced. She has been using it for a year just using her A/C adapter. She won't take it to an Apple dealer/store or to us to get it replaced. Bruce Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 Failing in what amount of time? I did not replace mine for many years and used it plugged in almost all of the time. It finally stopped taking a charge but not after enough time elapsed that it did not seem abnormal to need a new one. It was a Dell though not some piece of fruit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marvel Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 We had more trouble with folks with the Dell laptops I really prefer Windows myself, although there are a few things I like about the Apple OS. It might be a few months, but they never came off the A/C adapter and were always plugged in and not removed from their desks. Pretty crazy... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigerwoodKhorns Posted December 12, 2013 Share Posted December 12, 2013 I had an old dell which finally bit the dust. The cooling fan was on most of the time so that's probably normal. If it were not running you'd have a problem. With mine, the motherboard shorted out bringing on the blue screen of death. What I'm asking is if the battery gets hot while you are on a/c power. Personally I would replace the battery if you think it still has a few more years of life to it. Could be that XP has a clogged up registry and temp files running a bunch of scrips causign the fan to run on high (I an no expert so feel free to correct me). Try cleaning it up with freeware such as CCleaner. It is possible that runnign the media player is too much for it to handle, because of the age. Or, I sound like a broken record, put Linux Mint on it or another lightweight install on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldtimer Posted December 13, 2013 Share Posted December 13, 2013 It might be a few months, but they never came off the A/C adapter and were always plugged in and not removed from their desks. Pretty crazy... Mine was treated like that for years except for travel. Battery lasted for years. It is probably like cars, some are just lemons. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrinkles Posted December 16, 2013 Author Share Posted December 16, 2013 Pulled the plastic encapsulated battery out... Plugged in charger... Fired it up.... Worked fine... Turned it off... Unplugged the charger... Two days later... Plugged in the charger... Fired it up... Worked fine!!!! Cooling fan ran slower too... Battery not needed apparently.... Thanks to everyone for your quick and insightful input. Very much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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