Dangers of Overcharging a DS?

[ShadowTiger]

Ever since I ordered my R4 for the DS I bought off of someone last year, my sister has been playing it rather erratically, and nearly every moment. (Phoenix Wright. Always.)

We've noticed that the DS is barely lasting even three hours until it goes from fully charged to the red zone these days. It used to have at least seven hours worth of charge before the red low-battery indicator light went on. This was about a week ago, actually.


The question is, what is the absolute optimum way to keep a DS battery charged without harming it in any way? (I.e. not allowing its maximum charge capacity to decrease.) I'm always worried about that.


Is it safe to play while charging?
Is it safe to keep it plugged in even after it finishes charging? (But not playing it. It's just sitting there, closed and off.)
Which is better: To charge it when it enters its red zone, or to let it shut off due to complete lack of battery power, and then charge it?
About how many hours is it supposed to be able to get on optimum capacity? How much capacity damage can it endure?


Thank you.

[MottZilla]

How long have you had your DS? If you've had it for a couple years and use it often, the decrease is play time is normal and unavoidable. Rechargeable batteries don't last forever and their capacity decreases. You can't "overcharge" the DS battery really. It uses a certain technology which prevents that.

Basically, you need to buy a new battery if the one you have is not giving you enough time. Also, it is recommended NOT to fully drain the battery. If you do you should start recharging it right away. Leaving it fully discharged can damage it.

Basically just go buy a new battery.

[ShadowTiger]

Ah, thank you, I thought so. I had bought my DS (A Black'ish old style DS.) from a friend, and she had hers for quite a while even before then. I'm amazed I ever got more than seven hours at a time from it, in fact.

I also heard that the sound being played will drain it faster. I wonder just how much faster it is though.

Would wearing headphones help that at all, I wonder?

[The_Amaster]

I dunno, I think it's probably just your R4. My M3DS only gets about 3 or 4 hours of life, but my regular games still get the standard 7 or 8.

[Cloral]

I also heard that the sound being played will drain it faster. I wonder just how much faster it is though.

Would wearing headphones help that at all, I wonder?

Sound uses energy, so turning off sound will increase your battery life. Headphones, due to their proximity to your ears, are quieter and therefore use less energy than speakers.

[Mr. 207]

Do you use homebrew software on your R4, such as an NES emulator or any other homebrew games?

I find that on my DS Lite, most of the time when using homebrew software it drains the battery a whole hell of a lot faster then just normal GBA or normal DS games. It makes sense too, as the homebrew software programs aren't written by "professional" programmers so their code probably isn't very efficient. Non-efficient code means more battery gets used. Official DS/GBA games I would bet probably have high standards set by Nintendo about battery life.

[AtmaWeapon]

It's got a Li-Ion, right?

They have a shelf life and moderate problems with memory. What this tends to mean is that if you charge them when they're not completely empty, they start to get where that point is empty. I don't think it's much of a problem though because I'm almost certain most chargers address this by first draining the battery then charging it. The other problem is shelf life; over time, all rechargeable battery packs lose capacity.

This is why I wish stuff would just take AAs again. In 5-10 years, you won't be able to play a GBA SP or DS without having it plugged in to the wall. Replacement battery packs aren't a solution because shelf life starts the day of manufacture; unless Nintendo decides to produce them forever eventually they'll all be bad. I'm positive AA batteries will still be around then.

*edit* Mr. 207 might have a point, as well. MS has been starting to get on app developers' cases about their applications lately, because doing stupid things to increase disk usage and CPU usage contributes to low battery life. Of course, no one blames the software, it's always bloated Vista's fault that the battery drains fast.

[Din]

Aah, I had this same problem just months ago. OK, there are two alternatives to making this work. You either need to get a new adapter, or a new rechargable lithium ion battery (as stated earlier). My problem was that suddenly the charge light didn't go on when I plugged it in. Hastings/Gamestop/*insert name of retail store here* should have a pack that comes with a lithium ion battery, an adapter, AND a car adapter. I would reccomend finding one of these seperate, but I just ran out of options. Try the adapter, (worked for me) then try the lithium ion battery. If all goes well, it should be working fine later. Also, don't charge it too many times, or this will accelerate the process of the battery/adapter's decay. Ask if you have any problems or questions.

[MottZilla]

Do you use homebrew software on your R4, such as an NES emulator or any other homebrew games?

I find that on my DS Lite, most of the time when using homebrew software it drains the battery a whole hell of a lot faster then just normal GBA or normal DS games. It makes sense too, as the homebrew software programs aren't written by "professional" programmers so their code probably isn't very efficient. Non-efficient code means more battery gets used. Official DS/GBA games I would bet probably have high standards set by Nintendo about battery life.

This isn't really true. The Battery life of the DS is primarily going to vary based on if you use something like the R4 or a real DS card, as well as if you have the sound cranked up. Now back on the original GameBoy they had a feature where you could process your game frame in like Tetris rather quick, and then alot of CPU time is wasted sitting around for the next Vertical Blank interrupt. The CPU had a instruction "WAI", Wait for Interrupt. By doing this you could increase the battery life of the GameBoy while playing that game. While this could be true of the DS too, it's really based on how much current is being drawn by what is going on. If you are playing a fairly intense game or emulating something that takes most of the CPU time, you won't get much savings.

I agree Atma, they should go back to AAs, the problem is making a device run off AAs or AAAs for enough time. The main issue with AAs is they are larger than these lithium batteries.