So I picked up a new laptop battery for my wife's Dell Inspiron E1505 and I read the directions. Yea XP!

USAGE
Pls discharge the battery to 2% and then fully charge to 100%
at the first cycle after purchasing.
Do not discharge the battery pack to 0% as that will damage
the battery pack and shorten it's life.


Kind of like watching paint dry...

You are probably already aware, but you you don't "have" to have a battery in a laptop...unless there is no outlet around. If you leave the battery in after it already has 100% charge, and it is also running on AC power, ...it degrades the battery. If you want a battery to last a very long time, take it out, and only put it in when you need it for mobile use. Running current through a fully charged battery ruins it. Phones are the same...except that you can not take a battery out of a phone to use it, but you can be very cautious to charge it, and take it off the charger the moment it is fully charged, don't leave it plugged in to AC power.

:-)

Yep...however the old laptop battery was over 12 years old.