Q: does it charge when i shut it down or when its asleep or just whenever its pluged in?
A: Whenever it is plugged in. Some powersupplies can barely "keep up" with the computer's power usage when doing heavy processing, like playing games, compiling programs, heavy number-crunching etc... In those instances it will charge VERY slowly at the times when the computer is using peak power, but as soon as the power usage of the laptop starts to drop, the excess power available from the charger is sent to the battery to charge. What this means, is if you have a dead battery, and need to get it charged as quickly as possible, you will want to have the computer turned off.