Laptop Battery

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I've always practiced this....

Let a device fully power up (not to 100%, but until the hardware says it's fully charged).

Don't leave a fully charged item plugged in UNLESS you need 100% performance and unplugging drops it to a power-conserving mode (yeah, you can toggle settings, but 100% on battery = short time before plugging back in).

Routinely let a device completely run out before charging.

I've had batteries last for YEARS with this practice...even if the battery starts holding a charge for less time, it's still going strong for the most part.

It also depends on the battery chemistry as well. As a rule of thumb, discharge completely all NiCD/NiMH batteries before recharging and periodically discharge and recharge Li-Ion/Li-Polymer batteries. I got a Oral-B electric toothbrush that is several years old and it still works great since I let it die completely before recharge.

Here's an interesting tidbit as well: in the Toyota Hybrid System(Hybrid Synergy Drive or Lexus Hybrid Drive) as well as the Ford version and GM/Allison Transmission 2-mode hybrid system, the NiMH traction battery(200-350V DC, at least 28 7.2V Panasonic or Sanyo prismatic NiMH modules make it up), the car's battery control module and hybrid control module monitors battery health and the SOC(State of Charge) is kept between 40-60% to compensate for regenerative braking and to maximize battery life by reducing the amount of cycles each battery module gets.

I guess Toyota and Panasonic has figured a way to keep batteries in that application at their peak. The enemy of any rechargeable battery are cycles.

Thanks for the advice, that makes total sense. I will try doing this once I manage to get a new battery, since this one has obviously carked it.