Unplug Your Laptop Regularly (When In Doubt)

From Smarterware -

Should notebook computers be unplugged while being used to prolong battery life?

Yes and no. While battery technology has improved through the years, some manufacturers, like Apple, which uses lithium-ion batteries does not recommend leaving your portable plugged in all the time.

Others are more ambiguous. Both Dell and HP does not provide info on the matter. Neither does Asus. Judging from online posts, users have mixed experience.

So what's the answer? The best approach is to follow your portable's user manual. And if it does not say anything? Well, it is up to you.

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Personally, I take off the battery and plug my netbooks/laptops directly when I am not mobile.

Why Are Notebook Battery Figures So Misleading?

From Hot Hardware -

AMD's senior vice president and chief marketing officer Nigel Dessau has a insightful blog post on the state of notebook battery figures. Currently, manufacturers just provide a single figure regarding battery life, usually generated by MobileMark 2007. Unfortunately that number is usually a best case scenario instead of real usage. (MobileMark 2007 generates a rating of battery life when the PC is running on average less than 5% utilized, or as he calls it, "fundamentally idle." Or in other words, it is not really being used.)

E.g. Asus claims its Eee PC 1000HE can get 9.5 hours of battery life. But is that with the WiFi on all the time? And is the brightness set to full as well? Yet when reviewers get even just 6.5 hours, they are happy. Would we react the same way if a car achieves only half of its advertised city MPG consumption?

DIY 12-cell battery for Asus Eee PC 701

TenaciousDre of the Eeeuser forum has made a DIY 12-cell battery for his Asus Eee PC 701 from old Li-On cells from an old laptop. Upside is the battery lasts for 12-15 hours with hardcore settings. Downside is it is quite large plus it takes 12 hours to charge.

Schematics -




The finished mod -



More details and photos here.

Aftermarket 10-cell battery creates Eee PC 901: Hammerhead Edition

From Engadget -

A 13000mAh after-market battery was recently offered at eBay. Although it seems intended for the Asus Eee PC 1000 series, it fits the 901 as well - albeit creating a weird, aesthetically-challenged unit that only a true Eee fanatic would love.

Eeeuser forum thread page here.

Ebay auction page here.

Nine Cell Netbook Batteries Showing Up in the Wild

From Wired -

According to MSI Wind Forum member norfolk.enchance, he has just taken delivery of his 9-Cell, and it cost him £70 ($115) including shipping, from ebay.uk. While the unit is humongous, battery life is reportedly 7.34 hrs running Windows XP with WiFi on. Another member, BlackDragon, got a 6 hrs 43 minutes remaining reading on a Wind running OS X.

Older Asus Eee PC Batteries Are Incompatible With 900A

From Gizmodo -

A word of caution to Asus Eee PC owners who may want to use their older batteries with the Atom-based Asus Eee PC 900A. It uses a different and cheaper (4400mAh) connector than the previous models 701 and 900. Meaning, older batteries will not work with it.

Looking at the brighter side, the 900A's 8GB SSD uses a single pci-e card, not a split one; and the SLF flash should give you speeds comparable to the 900/901 4GB SSD.

Source article here.

10400mah battery for the Asus Eee PC

scutch of the Eeeuser forum has posted some photos (including the one above) of a 10400mah battery in this thread.

While the battery appears humongous, it does seem to make the Eee PC tilt for a better typing angle. :)

Most of the guys in the thread appeared to have ordered from an ebay reseller named lee262onlineuk.

Battery Shortage Should Evaporate by Q3

From Yahoo! News -

A shortage of li-ion batteries currently hurting laptop computer shipments will likely ease in the third quarter. A fire at South Korea's LG Chem in March has crimped global supplies of lithium-ion batteries.

The timing couldn't be worse. Demand for notebook computers is soaring this year as people turn to mobile computing. Some companies, such as Asus, have already said the shortage will crimp their laptop shipments this year. Asus believes the battery shortage means lost sales of its popular Eee PC. The company will reach its 5 million unit shipment target for this year, but it could have increased the target were it not for the battery troubles, said Jerry Shen, ASUS CEO, a few weeks ago.

ASUS replacing Eee PC 900 batteries with longer lasting versions

From Engadget -

Not even 24-hours after reports starting flooding in over users receiving less capacious batteries in Hong Kong than expected, Asus is stepping up and doing the right thing by giving every single Hong Kong-based customer a free (5800mAh) replacement.

Asus to offer free Eee PC 900 battery upgrade?

Digitimes has reported that Asus is considering giving a free Eee PC 900 battery upgrade to Hong Kong buyers who purchased their machines on the first day of launch following complaints that the company had mislead customers.

Several buyers have complained that the battery that came with their unit (4-cell, 4400mAh) does not have the same capacity as that of review samples(4-cell, 5800mAh).

Details of a replacement program, if any, will be announced at a later time.

10400 mAh Eee PC batteries available on eBay

Per Brad Linders' Eeesite, third party batteries are available on eBay. What is interesting is that their capacities are up to 10400 mAh, which is reportedly enough juice to power an Eee PC for nearly 5 hours. Moreover, at USD64, they are considerably cheaper than the USD99 Asus plans to charge for a replacement 4-cell battery.

You can read the full story here.

P.S.