Comment on Steps to repurpose old laptop as home server with Debian
leisesprecher@feddit.org 5 months ago
In case you didn’t already do that: remove the battery. It’s probably dead anyway, you don’t need it and it poses a potential (albeit low) risk.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
Depends. Usually it is still good as a UPS for a few minutes, and some laptops have a bios option to limit full charge which lowers the risk even further.
leisesprecher@feddit.org 5 months ago
And how much need is there for a UPS in this scenario - realistically.
Some of the people here take their admin-LARPing a tad too seriously. Most households have reliable enough electricity, and even if there’s an outage once every quarter, would a dead battery even help?
I advocate for being realistic with one’s own needs. Don’t build a five-nines datacenter for a glorified weather station or VCR.
poVoq@slrpnk.net 5 months ago
That is why I said it depends. There are many places where the electricity cuts quite frequently for a short duration. Often you don’t even notice it, but a 24/7 server would be effected.
In general, I think the risk of laptop batteries catching fire is overstated especially if you limit the charge to 80% or so. So weighting these two issues against each other you can come out either way, but I think for most places it will come down towards a UPS being nice to have.
hendrik@palaver.p3x.de 5 months ago
Everything has pros and cons. I've seen 3 laptops (of my family) with batteries that looked like a baloon after several years. I've subsequently removed or replaced them. I'd definitely check on them every now and then. A UPS is nice. Burning down a house isn't. I haven't seen them catch on fire (yet), they supposedly have at least some protection. But definitely get them out of the laptop once they look not okay or stop working (for more than 5 minutes) anyways. Everyone is responsible to do that decision on their own. Take care.
curbstickle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 months ago
The nice thing about some battery backup is not keeping it running during an outage, but safely shutting it all down.
I agree on the laptop battery, I’m just disagreeing on battery backup. It serves a purpose, as does decent surge elimination.