Sup.

How do you charge your DS lite? Plug it, then charge it overnight, or plug it, and quickly remove it once the recharging LED is out?

i usually charge it using usb cable the connects my nds to my pc that i bought from abe_mad. usually i will unplug it when it is done but i only left it once till the next morning bcos i use the normal charger and not the usb cable.

You MUST turn of the charger as soon as your DS has finished charging. Why? Cos if u charge it overnight, your Ds will be overcharged and you will soon realize that your battery life is much shorter.

But I thought the DS disconnects once its charge is full? The recharging LED turning off and all D:

ninja edit: not to mention there's no such warnings on the manuals/sites about this.

This post has been edited by infested_ysy: Dec 26 2006, 08:26 PM

At least Nintendo claimes that. But I have an experience of that myself. Ever since I bought my Phat Ds the battery life lasted for only 2 hours not 4. That is because I only charge my DS at night before bedtime. Just like handphones, overcharging also makes the battery life much shorter. Now that I have a Lite, I charge it in the morning and off it as soon as it stops charging. My lite actually can work up to 16 hours now when my friend's 'overcharged' lite will only last him for 5 hours. Seriously.

Yup, that's what the salesguy told me also....don't left it charging when the led light is off....

i tot litium battery doesn have this kind of problem? those problems only occured to old phat and big hp batteries that have been replaced by lithium ion battery.

My friends Lite got the problem. He only use 2nd brightness setting and last for 5 hours only.

well, u cant deny the possiblities that the battery life span will shorten after a period of time.

Eh it was brand new and he use for 1 week only.

and once again, u cant deny the possiblities that the battery is not so good ma.

Holy shi-...

Why didn't anyone mentioned throughout the forums before? D:. And I should've read up more on lithium ion batteries much sooner. The reason I started this thread is because of me and my brother suddenly getting 4 hours of gameplay time on my DS lite today on brightness 2 setting.

I've been letting my 12 year old brother take control over my DS lite recently (finals for my university's coming D:), and he tends to recharge it overnight (leftover habit from the Nickel Cadium days, I suppose. My parents started the trend =/), which I usually don't notice and thought it doesn't matter (LED off and all, thought it automatically cut the voltage supply once it's full). But today's the worse, he woke up late, and the DS lite got friggin 10 hours worth of recharging.

How much does original nintendo batteries cost again? I think I'll need one very soon, if mine still lasts 4 hours after this recharge >_<

Ya. But still I don't think we should overcharge our systems. Its like taking a big risk. Also I have another warning for you guys, don't leave your DS half-open! That causes a lot of pressure to the hinge and you will not only get the crack hinge, but the power led light place will also break just like the one in the ninty counters. If possible, don't open your DS too much.

Sorry I didn't warn you, seriously this is Nintendo's fault. I used to recharge my phat overnight,too. I heard that if you take an overcharged battery out and compare it with a good battery, the overcharged one will spin when you spin it but the good battery won't. You can get batteries from Playasia.com.

well, the way to identify an overused battery and a good battery, it sounds ridiculous to me. can anyone clarify on this?

the best way to keep ur battery alive is to play ur ds untill it finish all the power and then u recharge it . better charge it 3 hours . i usually use usb to charge my ds .. my adapter already kaboom ....

This post has been edited by rhoyo: Dec 26 2006, 10:07 PM

I normally charge it then take off after the led light is off.
but sometimes i also play the DS while charging. That wont affect it would it?

Of course not.

uhm, i usually leave my phat ds on charge overnight with no problems...

anyways, overcharge may be one issue, but if the battery goes bad after a week, that usually means the battery was bad to begin with. there is no way in hell even a dozen overcharges will KO a nintendo battery. every night before a DS meet im likely to leave the thing charging. been about 12 so far...

just to let you know, there are some dealers that will swap out the ori battery in the DS for ciplak China ones. statistically, these are more likely to be bad. they dont tell you unless you specifically ask. you gotta check the battery and make sure its ori.

this last piece of info i am not 100% sure, but Lit Ion batteries (the type in all nintendo handhelds since the GBA SP) supposedly last LONGER from constant recharging, tho i dunno what OVERcharging will do. the ones that die from constant charging are NiMH and NiCd batteries.

From Nintendo source

Different games runs the processor and thus have varying battery life. Some games might not be that processor intensive and thus will last longer. If a game has 3D graphics (ie Metroid Prime), turns the mic on all the time (ie Nintendogs), or accesses the data on catridge alot (ie Phoniex Wright). Battery life can go down quite drastically compared to other games. Also.. if you're using any of them supercards, etc. etc. Your battery life will also be shortened cause of the way the cards are accessed.

Lithium Ion batteries usually have a charge limiter circuit in them so that once it's full the battery doesn't get over charged and heat up. If Lithiums heat up too high, they go BOOM!

I thought the LED light turns off so it doesn't waste battery to light up the LED when charging? I never really noticed a difference on the battery lifetime but realized the LED light turns off quite quickly.

My brother and I have been playing those simpleton 2D games for the said 4 hours total today. Things like Kirby Squeek Squad and Castlevania:PoR. Not using Wifi, not using mics, didn't max out sound (using earphones).

I know supercards will drain my battery faster, but before this, I would always get a minimum 14 hours or so out of each recharge (shifting from 4th brightness and 3rd brightness from time ito time). Ah well, I should make an update or something later tomorrow, once I let my friends play it till the LED goes red and tell how much hours I managed to get.

For me i charge it until the LED light off then direct switch off . Sometime will over charge 10 mins around XD. ( because of forget to switch off.)

There are 2 thing that i know will waste the batery power like >
Open the speaker sound loud.
Turn the brightness become brighter.

I turn my sound around 1/3 loud, brightness beocme 2nd bright, then i play YuGiOh GX SS can play around 5 hour ++ without LED red color.

This post has been edited by vincent09: Dec 27 2006, 09:46 AM