is this true about laptop battery lifespans?

Power Drills use NiCad batteries, and your story is true with that type of battery. Almost NO laptop uses NiCad batteries.

Here is an article that suggests that HEAT is a problem. These tips can make your battery last longer by paying attention to HEAT.

1.) Always use your laptop on a hard surface.

2.) Do not keep your laptop battery installed when you use your laptop on AC for an extended period of time.

3.) Use a full charge cycle before recharging

- the article suggests that you make the most of each charge cycle, so don't recharge always. So maybe you would remove the battery when you don't need the battery.

4.) Be careful where you store your laptop

Again, avoid heat.

http://www.zbattery.com/laptopbatterycare.html

Yes it is true. Batteries do develope memory. However, the amount of time it takes for a bettery to "learn" a charging pattern varies with the type and size of battery. For all batteries sold by reputable manufacturers in the United States the battery should take 15 to 20 short charges to show a memory effect. If it is showing a memory effect in less than this number (for example, a new battery) it may be defective.

Two good practices come to mind:

1. Let the battery run out before you charge it every time. This may mean letting your computer sit running until it shuts down automatically. The more often you do this the better longer the battery will last.

2. Several companies make battery conditioners. These devices allow you to hook up the battery and put it into a cycle where it is discharged and recharged automatically. This is a little less effective than practice 1. because the conditioners tend to discharge the battery faster than the computer would. Battery technicians will tell you: Fast in=fast out. The faster you discharge the battery the faster it will charge, and that is no better than a short charge.

Finally, try to only use your battery to run your computer, not peripheral devices. Modems, USB multipliers, opitcal mice and other power consuming peripherals cause the battery to discharge more quickly. If you are going to use such devices do it with the computer plugged into a wall outlet.

The answer is maybe. It depends upon the type of battery. Older battery technology used nickel-cadmium (Ni-Cad)rechargeable. Ni-Cad batteries definitely have a charge memory. Best way to avoid the problem is to fully dis-charge the battery before re-charging. If you repeatedly re-charge when the battery is only 50% charge, the battery will start to "remember" the 50% mark as the point of full discharge. In other words, you will lose 50% of the battery capacity. It is possible to reverse this affect, but you have to be able to disassemble the battery into the component cells and have equipment to measure the voltage across the cell. A good article is here:

http://www.batterybank.com/page18.html

Newer batteries are either Nickel-Metal-Hydride (NMH) or Lithium Ion (Li-Ion). NMH batteries have a small tendency toward memory. Li-Ion has no charge memory.

It depends on the kind of battery, lithium-ion batteries are less sensitive to the memory effect.

Besides some computer manufacturers like Compaq comes with a battery optimizer software that makes periodical charges and discharges of the battery as maintenance in order to control the memory effect.

Laptop batteries are almost exclusively lithium-ion cells and have no cell memory. Nickel-cadmium cell have a memory and will lose capacity if you don't fully discharge and then fully charge them. I usually leave my laptops plugged in and unplug them when I need them on the go, and just plug them back in when the batteries die or I get home. I have had to replace 1 battery in the last 6 years for all 3 laptops.

New ones it is not true, but on the older ones it might be. If you are constantly half using the battery and re charging it i would totally flatten it about once a week, otherwise if when you use it you mostly flatten it i would totally discharge and recharge it about once a month and it should be fine. If you don't use the battery much make sure that you discharge it totally and recharge it fully to get the best life out of it.

That used to happen when batteries where made with nickel-metal.

Today batteries are made with lithium-ion and they dont have the so called "memory effect".

One good way to keep your battery healthy is to let it die once in a while, just let it loose all its charge.

It doesn´t matter if you charge it 50%, or let it discharge a little and charge it again, as long as you get it to discharge completelly once in a while it will be healthy.

I hope this helps.

Some batteries have memory so if you continuously charge your battery then your battery will start to loose its life quicker. It's still good if you either shut down your computer when the battery is charge. Or draining your battery once in a while.

Today Yahoo had a great story of 15 ways to save battery life for your notebook.

Go here to read it: http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/34884

There was just one on Yahoo's front page. It said to dim the screen and not run CD or DVD when you're on battery.