My laptop discharges while gaming, should I upgrade?

[7412]

Here's the thing. It doesn't discharge fast enough that it's a nuisance.

And since I used my laptop as a desktop replacement when I'm back home after college (constantly plugged-in to an outlet, with external monitor, keyboard, mouse), I was wondering if it wasn't actually a GOOD thing that the battery gets to discharge a bit sometimes instead of remaining at 100% all the time? 

[Eigenvektor]

That would mean your laptop draws more power under load than the power supply can deliver. So a bigger/better power supply (if that's available for your model) might fix that issue.

[Fasauceome]

13 minutes ago, 7412 said:

I was wondering if it wasn't actually a GOOD thing that the battery gets to discharge a bit sometimes instead of remaining at 100% all the time? 

Yeah, keeping a battery between about 25% and 85% is best for battery life, but it's super important to not let the battery drain to 0% to preserve the lifespan.

[7412]

41 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

That would mean your laptop draws more power under load than the power supply can deliver. So a bigger/better power supply (if that's available for your model) might fix that issue.

I know this. But my question is: should I fix this issue though? Since, again, it doesn't draw enough to be a nuisance.

 

33 minutes ago, Fasauceome said:

Yeah, keeping a battery between about 25% and 85% is best for battery life, but it's super important to not let the battery drain to 0% to preserve the lifespan.

So, you say I should keep my "underpowered" charger then?

[Eigenvektor]

12 hours ago, 7412 said:

I know this. But my question is: should I fix this issue though? Since, again, it doesn't draw enough to be a nuisance.

 

So, you say I should keep my "underpowered" charger then?

I'm not sure actually. Depends on how often that happens, but you are technically eating into your charge/discharge cycles. You are only discharging a few cells every time, and its controller should cycle between cells each time, to distribute wear more evenly. So it's not too bad, probably, but will wear it down over time. Of course removing the battery while gaming isn't really an option, because if the power brick is underpowered, it would likely shut down

[7412]

28 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Depends on how often that happens, but you are technically eating into your charge/discharge cycles.

But with a normal charger, it would overcharge after 100%, no? Which would be better?

[Eigenvektor]

Just now, 7412 said:

But with a normal charger, it would overcharge after 100%, no? Which would be better?

No, assuming a good battery controller, your battery shouldn't be overcharging. In fact the controller could tell you "100%" when, physically, the battery is at 80% and it could tell you "0%" when the battery is actually at 20%, to increase its lifespan (think of it like over-provisioning on an SSD). Like I said, the controller will likely discharge a different cell each time you go below 100% to spread the wear evenly across different cells. Of course all of this depends on the quality of the battery and its controller. It could also be doing none of these things.

 

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