| 15 Useful Tips on Extending a Laptop’s Battery Life Posted: 08 Jan 2011 01:03 AM PST 
Visit the actual post: 15 Useful Tips on Extending a Laptop’s Battery Life I’ve previously blogged about having a brand new shiny Acer Aspire 4740G laptop which I use for working outdoors. Whether I’m working on a coffee shop, a restaurant or drive myself to one of the few scenic places up here in Baguio, my laptop is such an indispensable tool whenever I just need to boost my creativity on a different environment. My laptop had also served many times as my backup computer. I’m not carrying a light netbook: my notebook weighs more than two kilos which is suitable for Photoshop work, web design and some blogging activities. When I purchased it, I chose performance over battery life. I noticed that my notebook’s battery charge lasts for about three hours with normal use.  image credit to Lauri Rantala I am sharing these tips on how to extend your laptop’s battery life. I am a 100% Windows user so I have written these tips using the Windows operating system in mind. - As much as possible, adjust the brightness of the laptop screen to the lowest setting. Text is difficult to read when in a bright environment, so I try to look for darker places such as coffee shops where I could easily read the screen.
- Turn off all unnecessary applications. Check your system tray for any applications that reside in the memory and exit them. If you can confidently tweak the registry (this is not for the faint of heart), remove the applications that run on startup. Uninstall unnecessary applications. Some of these applications reside in the memory that also shortens the battery charge and makes the laptop less speedy as well.
- Check the computer regularly for any viruses residing in the memory. Most of the time modern viruses written today slow down any laptop systems.
- Upgrades. Don’t ignore them. Some updates help speed up applications and make efficient use of memory.
- Turn of unnecessary services. I have been able to add 30 minutes more on my own laptop’s battery charge doing this.
- Run a defragmentation program on the computer regularly. I do this weekly. I don’t use the built-in defragmenter that comes with Windows. There are a lot of free and paid alternative defragmenters which performs the job faster with minimal downtime.
- Turn off or unplug unnecessary devices attached to the laptop. Wifi and Bluetooth drains the battery easily, so turn it off when not in use. Remove all unused connections and devices attached to the laptop. Even a mouse attached to the USB drains the laptop easily.
- Avoid using the CD/DVD. Like the USB port, this mechanical device too, drains the laptop power in no time.
- Check the power settings. For the ordinary users, they could just set the Power Options to “Power Saver” mode (in Windows 7). The Power Options in Windows 7 isn’t limited to a few settings; advanced users would be delighted in seeing the advanced options which can be further tweaked.
- Avoid multitasking. Open one or two program at a time as needed. Minimize open tabs or windows in your browser too.
- Hibernate is better than sleep. In my experience, Windows 7 does a very good job in restoring computer from hibernation than all its predecessors. Sleep mode consumes a bit more power which is needed by the memory, while hibernate mode simply saves memory contents into the hard disk and doesn’t consume any power at all.
- Keep the laptop battery cool. Don’t block the ventilation slots. A hot laptop increases the battery wear that leads to a shorter life (and you’ll be needing to buy an expensive laptop battery in no time to replace the worn-out battery).
- (If you are using lithium-ion battery in your laptop – true in many recent releases). Calibrate the laptop once in every 30 charges or one month, whichever comes first. Also, don’t discharge the laptop until its last charge (10% charge and below) – lithium-ion batteries perform better with several shallow discharges than any deep discharge and makes the laptop battery last longer.
- Increase RAM. The more RAM, the better because this makes the system faster and more efficient. The computer will not be relying on the hard drive that much to augment the data on the RAM.
- Sounds, screensavers and other eye candy such as the Windows Aero, consume power. Turn them off.
Although these tips help extend a battery’s life, remember that any laptop’s battery wears out in due time. Typically, these batteries last for two or three years before needing to be replaced.  |
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