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I'm using my laptop at home with battery removed and only connected to the AC power. However I'm lacking the mobility as my power cord is kinda short. Is it safe from electrical point of view to plug in the battery while the laptop is connected to AC and disconnect the AC power afterwards?

What about the opposite side of the question - is it safe (or what the damage could be) if you work on battery, plug in the AC and unplug the battery?

If there are differents for different models of laptops, I'm asking about IBM Lenovo T60. Is there such thing as a 'hot-plug battery'?

Ivan Petrushev
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6 Answers6

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Most laptops have hot-plug batteries, which allows you to go to line power for a few moments so that you can swap out your nearly-dead battery for your fully-charged spare. I see Lenovos as being no exception to this.

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams
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I have a lenovo e545 that would not charge while plugged in. I looked around for every possible remedy for this and nothing worked. What did work was turning it on without that battery and then slamming the battery in. Now it is charging. HTH

gregalabama
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Personally I wouldn't risk it. If, as you say, the power cord is short there's a good chance it'll come out during the operation anyway.

Laptop batteries are designed to be left in whilst the unit is on mains power anyway so you're not really gaining anything by removing the battery unless you're not going to be using the battery for an extended period.

ChrisF
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My experience is just the opposite that of gregalabama. I have blown the charging circuit in two Thinkpads by hot plugging in battery packs while connected to AC and turned on. The models are a X41 and recently a X230. The laptops will run on battery power, but will no longer charge the battery. I know the battery is not at fault, because it will charge in another laptop of the same model. I think it may have blown one of the surface mount fuses on the main board. The X230 gives an error message that it is connected to AC, but will not charge and the battery should be replaced. But another battery gives the same symptom and error message, and both batteries will charge in another X230.

Ssquared
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Insofar as I have successfully tried on different models of a Dell, an Acer and a Gateway, both old (down to 2007), and brand new - I haven't noticed any problem with hot-swapping batteries.

Just a note, even though I'm guilty for doing it I don't know if there's any use to take out a battery after it has been discharged to save cycles since I've read that only applies to older batteries; therefore, you will only want to hot-swap when you're actually hot-swapping 2 batteries and not just taking one out.

Miladinoski
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No, you can't change batteries while the laptop is plugged in. Follow these steps:

  1. Turn the laptop off or put it in Hibernate mode
  2. Unplug the AC adapter from the wall
  3. Unplug the AC adapter from the computer
  4. Unplug any other wires connected to the laptop
  5. Remove or connect your battery

If you don't follow these steps, you could be injured.

Pops
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Sandy
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