I have been told that running a laptop with the mains lead/transformer will damage the battery and burn out the charging circuits.
A laptop should ONLY be used on battery power and the lead used to recharge the battery when flat.
Is this true?

not that im aware of, if its the correct power adaptor, and has a transformer, then it should be fine

Sounds like an old wives tale to me daveyboy :?
Mine runs off the mains all the time and i've never had so much as a flicker.

I think you will find that it is best not to leave them plugged into the mains all the time unless it's in use. When ever my Laptop is on it is connected to the mains. I try and always make sure I unplug the mains adaptor from it when I switch it off.

Originally posted by neeeeeeeeeek
I think you will find that it is best not to leave them plugged into the mains all the time unless it's in use. When ever my Laptop is on it is connected to the mains. I try and always make sure I unplug the mains adaptor from it when I switch it off.

Ohh yeah, i forgot to mention that :oops:
My adaptor is unplugged as soon as i switch my laptop off. I know they're designed to run hot but i doubt it helps in the long run.

You should run the battery down on a fairly regular basis - once a month at least. If you don't, the battery will deteriorate faster than normal.

Good point Old_Bloke about battery care. We've got some a few Sony Viao's at work, and as they've not been cared for by other users, the battery life is around 25 minutes on even the best of them!

thanks for the replies
Dave