General Chat

I am about to ask a silly question.
With a lap top, how long can it be left if fully charged and not checked or used? Is it going to keep the info on it etc.
Thanks for helping a non techie.

How long do you have in mind? Days? Weeks? Years?

I assume you mean fully charged but then unplugged and the laptop shut down.

I'm not a techie either - however, from simply searching on Google, the following things seem to be the case.

Impossible to give a definite answer.
Depends on many variables - age of laptop, age of battery, storage conditions, etc.

Unless you remove it, the battery will continue to discharge gradually until it's dead, even if the laptop is shut down.

Can't find any mention of info being lost, so presumably that doesn't happen.
One person suggested that an SSD might start to degrade eventually - but that must mean years.

Keep a backup of your files just in case. It's sensible to do that anyway.

One of many search results - :

https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/threads/what-happens-if-you-dont-turn-on-your-computer-laptop-for-a-long-time.257489/

How long is a piece of string?
My previous laptop, a HP, held it's charge for hours but my current one, a Dell, doesn't last long at all so I usually have it plugged in when in use.
The battery has run right down on a couple of occasions but it hasn't affected any of my files. I just plug and recharge, no problem. It's not good to let it run down but life happens.

Btw, there are no silly questions when it comes to IT - users far outweigh geeks :-D

Thank you both, I just feel silly asking that type of question, I could well be leaving it for a month or two when it is safe to go abroad for holidays. <3 but that won't be until next year anyway, thanks again x.

isnt there a buttton cell (or summat) that keeps the date/time settngs going?

From my personal experience ......................

An HP laptop obtained new in December 2016 free for customer "thank you" points was set-up in early January 2017, used briefly, then put away.

I handed it over to OH in early 2019 after his laptop gave up the ghost.

Battery of course deader than a doornail, but once plugged in charged normally, and could be used immediately while it was charging. All the information I had put on it was still there, including short cuts. He then handed it over to techies at his previous employer, a university, and they loaded on extra software so he could access the university's programmes.

He used it for about 4 months then got a new desktop, so the HP was put on one side again until October 2020 when my desktop gave up the ghost.

Had to get a geek in that time to start it up for me .......... the university techies had decided that the laptop belonged to the university so had set up barriers to prevent anyone not eligible from accessing :-0

Since last October, it has been sitting on the dining table, plugged in to a bar although that is not always turned on.

It works every time I want to use it.

All the stuff that has ever been loaded on there from when I first used it in January 2017 is still there

So information has remained at least 4 years