Setting up My New Laptop
Written on Mar 22, 2026, Updated on May 3, 2026
As I mentioned at the end of an earlier article, I ordered a new laptop and had it shipped to my older son's house in Arizona. Well, I'm in Arizona now, and it took me two days to set it up.
I mentioned, in another article, that I was going to back up the drive before replacing Windows 11 Home with Linux Mint. That wasn't what took me so long. I forgot to bring a mouse and I had to use the touchpad until I bought an inexpensive mouse.
No one in my older son's family had a mouse I could use. I never learned how to use a touchpad. Second, I had to learn how to enable a battery charging threshold.
My Old Laptop
I bought my previous laptop in July 2023 while I was in the United States, where I used it until I left. I again used it while I was in the Philippines, until I noticed the battery swelling in May 2024.
Because I could not find a replacement battery in the Philippines, I ordered one from the United States and had one of my daughters-in-law ship it to me when she shipped other things my wife and I needed. I received it seven months later, December 2024, and I installed it right away.
The new battery lasted longer than the old one, but it still started swelling in February of this year. After careful research, I discovered why those batteries would not last. With that particular laptop, there were two reasons.
The laptop would not power up without a battery being in place. The device kept charging at 100 percent even when AC power was being used. Lithium-ion batteries degrade quickly when kept at a 100 percent charge.
That was my first laptop with a lithium-ion battery. We had to drain the previous kind of batteries (before lithium-ion started being used) fully before recharging them to 100 percent.
Even if I had known the differences, the old laptop might have done its damage anyway because of how the power was routed through the battery. I don't know if the 20-80 rule would have prevented it.
The 20-80 Rule
You should never drain lithium-ion batteries below 20 percent or charge them above 80 percent, as doing so will increase stress on the batteries. Some sources say it should be 40.
I found a page that explained how to limit charging levels at the command line, with this command:
echo 80 | sudo tee /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_end_threshold
Another source said to do the same thing with the start threshold, to prevent charging until the power drops below 50 percent:
echo 50 | sudo tee /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_control_start_threshold
During testing, I had to unplug and use the battery until it dropped below 50 percent for it to start charging after I plugged it back in. It stopped at exactly 80 percent. I used the laptop unplugged several times over the course of a week without charging issues.
I found a later source that told me how to make the laptop shut down at 20 percent battery when it's not plugged in. It required this file to be edited:
/etc/UPower/UPower.conf
These values need to be found and replaced:
PercentageLow=25 PercentageCritical=20 PercentageAction=18 CriticalPowerAction=PowerOff
It won't take effect until the laptop is restarted in some way or a systemctl command is given to restart "upower". I could tweak those numbers to shut down at 40 percent, but I know it isn't necessary in my situation.
Limited Battery Usage
I'll use this laptop frequently while I'm in the United States, and I'll always keep it plugged in. I may use the battery while traveling back to the Philippines. Once I'm at home in the Philippines, I intend to ensure the battery is at 50 percent before putting the laptop in storage.
I prefer to use my mini PC with a 21-inch screen over this 15.6-inch screen. This laptop has a more powerful CPU, but that doesn't matter to me. I've used the mini PC for 22 months so far without any issues whatsoever. It may last much longer.
Image by BeezeeStock from Pixabay