Laptop’s may be one of the greatest innovations we have ever seen in the history of personal computers, however the length of available idle battery time can be rather discouraging. Whether on the road or in class, these tips will leave you with more than enough time to finish that movie, eh erm…term paper. Let’s begin.
10. Dim Your Screen Display
If you have a newer model laptop, the chances are that when you disconnect the power cable the screen automatically dims itself to save laptop battery, however the older models don’t happen to be as convenient. When you disconnect your power supply be sure to hit the brightness hotkey or to go in and manually lower the screen contrast and brightness. One more thing, be sure that you change the brightness after disconnecting the power supply. Reason being, some laptop’s have 2 different light settings for when the laptop is connected to an A/C outlet.
9. Eliminate Unneeded Background Programs
Done browsing the web? Close your browser. Finish with the iTunes? Close the program. Every process that you run on your laptop consumes memory, which in the long run consumes battery power. Need I say more? Okay, I will. Instant message applications do the same thing, so if you are not chatting be sure to turn it off.
8. Perform Routine System Defragmentation
The more space on your hard drive the less your system has to work and filter through, which saves a lot of battery power, and also helps to increase drive and device function as well.
7. Limit External Hardware
Chances are if you’re on the road, then you’ll find yourself at a loss for battery power. Not just in your laptop but other devices as well. Mp3 players, smartphone’s, USB mouse’s, and so forth. They will zap your laptop faster than you can say “dead”, so keep the external connections to a minimum.
6. Treat It Like You Need It
Keep your battery regularly charged and on top of being charged, use it. If you don’t use it you’ll lose it is actually a true saying, and is very common in devices with rechargeable batteries.
5. Clean Battery Contacts Weekly
Dust is literally one of the worst enemies of electronic equipment, actually any filth sludge or grime can wreak havoc on your laptop battery power and can bring you into a world of shame. Whenever your laptop computer is not in use, make sue that you remove the battery and clean the contacts as well, this will ensure that there are no skips along the power grid causing your battery life to be wasted.
4.Take Advantage Of System Hibernate
The system hibernate feature is highly underrated. Although it can be a bit of an inconvenience having to deal with the system start up screen, but it saves you so much battery power, and on top of that, leaves your system in stasis until you resume normal activity. Pretty neat, huh?
3. Don’t Overwork Your System
I am guilty of overworking my system, I watch movies, play games, and send emails at pretty much the same time. The virtual memory used by my laptop is phenomenally insane. By the time that you get the message saying you have 10% battery left, it’s more than likely already too late.
2. Add More Memory
The more memory you have the more space you have for error, this also cut’s down the usage by important system processes such as web browsing, automatic updates, and so forth. By increasing your memory 5GB you just saved yourself a tremendous amount of battery power, if you don’t believe me try it.
1. When All Else Fails, Start Over
There is nothing wrong, with folding your hand and counting your losses, especially when you’ve done all that you can do. There are so many places that you can go to and purchase a brand new laptop without the grief and hassle of being overpriced, obsolete, discontinued, and so forth. If it does come to this make sure that you purchase a computer that is geared for your needs, other wise you’ll be one the way to purchasing another laptop in the future.
