From Alex Dow
I was involved with training colleagues to use laptops in the 1990s and at that time I could safely tell them to fully charge the batteries, then disconnect the charger until the batteries were close to being discharged, as you suggest (15 November, p 42).
Late in the 1990s the situation began to change; the manual for my wife’s laptop, manufactured about four years back, clearly states that the charger should be left fully powered whilst the laptop is in use.
It appears that the old adage of “Read The Manual” applies (unless the manual has already been consigned to the recycling bin).
Cowdenbeath, Fife, UK
