Question about battery charge..

its best to charge ANY rechargable batt when its drained - there's no problem playing while its charging. don't worry about the overall batt life, it should last a few years. xraystar

so if im at home or at hotel, or anywhere nearby a plug, its better to play with the DS connected ?,

does the battery long last that way ? at least you can save some charged of the 500, playing it connected right ?

does everyone here give the same answer...

it is better to play while plugged in because it runs completely off of the plugged in power preserving you total battery life for when you really need it...

The battery lasts 500 charges. Even if you charge it every other day, it will last well over two years. So you should really never have to buy a new battery. As for charging it, I wait for it to charge on its own, I can wait for two hours, besides, I would not want to chance screwing my battery up. XxShadowTongyxX

Uh, what? I've charged my ds battery way more than 500 times. Does that mean it's going to die soon?

[QUOTE="XxShadowTongyxX"]The battery lasts 500 charges. Even if you charge it every other day, it will last well over two years. So you should really never have to buy a new battery. As for charging it, I wait for it to charge on its own, I can wait for two hours, besides, I would not want to chance screwing my battery up. AnonymousKitten

Uh, what? I've charged my ds battery way more than 500 times. Does that mean it's going to die soon?

It won't die out, it will still recharge, just not to its full potential. For example, I think the battery lasts about 10 hours, so after the 500 charges, the DS will probably charge enough for you to play for 8 hours.

Supposedly the only charge that counts is the first. When you first open that brand new DS, it has a partial charge right out of the box. However, you're not supoosed to play it untill you give it that first "Full" charge. This gives the lithium battery it's "Memory" so-to-speak, and will help it keep an accurate charge throughout its lifespan. Now if you're like every new DS owner, you probably just starting playing it right away, instead of exhibiting patience for the good of your system. Now your DS suffers from premature redification, making you think it needs to be charged. Have you ever dared letting the system just "Die," regardless of whether or not your game is saved? The psychology is the same as letting your car run out of gas; ie: it's just not a good thing to do.

I only get about 5 hours out of a perfect battery, but I'm not allowed to tell you why.

I play my DS until the light goes red, then I turn it off, and plug it in to charge. Then i stop chraging when the orange light goes away. Repeat.

That's really all you need to do.

After the light went red one time I timed how much time I could play until the DS just turned off by itself. I started timing as soon as it went red. It was a DS lite. I had the light setting on the lowest and volume on a little bit. It lasted 1 hour and 5 minutes.

For the first year I had my DS lite, the battery lasted roughly 9 hours and 45 minutes on the lowest light setting. Now, after a year, it is noticeably less, roughly lasts 6 hours and 45 minutes.