Your daily dose of practical, easy to follow tech tips!
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Question from Oliver: I have an old Dell XPS 17 laptop that’s now running Ubuntu Linux.
This machine still works perfectly but the battery won’t hold a charge anymore.
Since it’s so old I don’t really want to buy a new battery for it.
Would it be ok if I just removed the battery and ran it straight from the charger?
Question from Mike: I love your newsletter, Rick. I read it every morning!
I hope you can answer a question for me.
The battery in my trusty Lenovo G570 laptop has gone bad and I need to replace it.
I really love this laptop now that I’ve taken your advice and put Linux on it.
I’d really like to keep using it if I can, but I don’t want to spend a fortune on a battery for it.
Question from Tim: I have what is surely an easy question to answer, Rick.
Is it safe to run a laptop without a battery installed?
I’ve heard conflicting answers and I’d really love to have your opinion on the matter.
Question from Brenda: I just bought my son a new laptop for his birthday. As I was paying for it the cashier told me I need to let the battery charge to 100% before I let my son start using it.
In the past I have always just unboxed my new laptops and plugged them in and started using them immediately, and as far as I know there was never any problem.
Do you think I really need to charge the battery before I give it to him? [Read more…]
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Question from Corrine V.: I have a 5 year old HP laptop that won’t work anymore unless it’s plugged into a wall socket.
The battery charge indicator is stuck on 2% charge and it won’t charge any higher than that.
I thought laptop batteries were supposed to last longer than this.
Do you think I need to buy a new battery or could the charger maybe be bad?
Rick’s answer: [Read more…]