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Tech Tip
Date: 05/09/97
Battery Maintenance in Digital VP 500 Series Notebook
Product: DIGITAL hint VP and VP500 notebooks
Model: HiNote VP LSS5120/LTS5120,
HiNote VP500 VP510/VP520/VP525.VP545. VP550, VP560, VP565, VP575
Part # Affected: HiNote VP family FR-PA5WF-xx, FR-PA6WF-xx,
FR-PABWF-xx, FR-PACWF-xx.
HiNote VP500 family FR-PB1WF-xx, FR-PB3WF-xx, FR-PB4WF-xx,
FR-PC1WF-xx, FR-PC3WF-xx, FR-PC4WF-xx.
Affected Period: N/A
OS Type and Version: N/A
ECO/FCO Issued: N/A
Summary:
All batteries have limited life span. A battery’s life span is measured by the number of charging and draining cycles it can undergo before it can no longer be charged. The amount of time that your system can be operated by battery power before the battery is drained is referred to as battery run time.
Description:
Nickel Metal Hydride Battery Care
Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries are extremely common in many types of portable systems, such as cellular phones, camcorders and portable computing devices.
Memory Effect
A NiMH battery in poor condition may begin to exhibit characteristics of memory effect. Memory effect will occur when a user does not allow the battery to fully drain before charging it again. For example, if you use the battery for 20 minutes at a time and then recharge it, the battery will tend to "remember" that it only needs to operate 20 minutes per charge. As a result, during the charging process, the declining battery will only receive a portion of its charge capacity.
NiMH Battery Life
Memory effect has a direct impact on the battery’s life span. NiMH batteries have a typical life of up to 800 (charge/drain) cycles. If the battery is used an average of 30 minutes per cycle, you can expect a total life of 400 hours. If you use the battery 3 hours per cycle, you can expect a total life of 2,400 hours. Therefore, it is advantageous to use the battery as much as possible during each cycle.
However, in attempts to prevent the memory effect, it may not always be practical to continuously use your notebook until the battery drains to its minimum level. As a solution, Digital recommends that you periodically form or condition the battery. When a battery is formed, it is put through a series of charging and draining cycles. A battery which is formed will perform better and last longer than a battery which has not been formed.
If your system will not be in use for more than 30 days, Digital recommends that you remove the NiMH Battery from the system. When a NiMH battery is removed from the system, it has a shelf life of approximately 90 days before a charge cycle is required.
LiIon Battery
The Lithium-ion (LiIon) main battery pack is standard on selected models. The optional secondary battery pack is also LiIon. The secondary LiIon battery pack can be installed into the expansion bay, where the 12X CD-ROM/FDD Combination module is located. A fully charged battery will last three hours depending on your usage of the computer and its power management settings.
Greater Life Span and No Memory Effect
Lithium-ion batteries have a longer life and are considerably lighter than NiMH batteries. LiIon batteries average 1,000 complete charge/discharge cycles. In actual use, the number is larger due to the fact that most users will not fully discharge the battery. Unlike the nickel-metal hydride battery, there is no need to be concerned with fully discharging the battery before charging it again since lithium-ion technology is not susceptible to memory effect.
Solution:
Forming a Battery
Action Instructions and Information
Forming a battery
To expedite the draining process, enter the BIOS setup program and run the notebook from this setup screen which disables ALL power management.
1 Charge it to its full capacity. The notebook’s battery charge LED will turn off.
Typical Battery life info …
Battery Life based on ZDIGIT II. (HR.MINS)
VP550 - 2:29
VP560 - 2:40
VP565 - 2:38
VP575 - 2:40