Laptops users know the critical importance of the battery and it’s life. Users who carry their laptops with them know it well that the performance of the whole system depends alot on the battery power. The more the standby time it gives the more convenient it will be for you. But to keep the battery long lasting you need to take a good care of it. There are some guidelines that, if followed can help in improving the battery performance and keep it long lasting.
The simplest tip of all! Keep the laptop running on AC power instead of battery. If you’re on your desk, bed or sofa and the charging point is near you then you should connect the charger to to power it up with AC. The reason is simple – when the AC power is ON, battery is not used at all. Running the laptop more with AC power saves the charging and overall battery life.
Keep the CPU fan’s vents clear. If its vents are under the laptops’ body then make sure you’re placing it above the surface on which it is placed. This keep the air flowing under the body which helps in exhausting the heat from the vents. Remember heated system will force the fan to rotate faster which will require more battery power.
Kill the resource gobblers
End the background processes that are not vital. Monitor the resource usage through a
‘Ctrl-Alt-Del’ which brings up the Windows Task Manager (in Windows). If you’re not on the internet, it is safe to shut down the immediate non-essential programs running in the taskbar like the antivirus and the firewall. Weed out unnecessary programs running as start-ups by launching the System Configuration Utility from
Run – Msconfig – Tab: Startup. Uncheck the programs which you don’t want to launch and reboot the computer once.
Pause the scheduled tasks
It may be a defrag or a virus scan, but make sure it is scheduled for a time when you are near a power outlet. If not then nix them for the moment.
Even if you don’t intend to use it, don’t leave any CD/DVDs as leftovers in the drives. A spinning drive sucks battery power like a sponge
Mute the speakers and try avoiding the use of multimedia software to maximize the battery life. Installed sound schemes also drain a battery perceptibly.
To maximize battery life by a little, switch off the screensaver.
LCD Screen and hard drive are the two most power consuming devices on a notebook. Turning off the screen saves a lot of battery power when you’re away for a while. Similarly dimming it also saves a good amount of battery charging. There are always shortcuts/functions keys given on all laptops to directly control the brightness of the screen
Most of the users like to stand by the system when they’re away and it is assumed that from standby state system wakes up early. But in standby mode system’s hardware are still awake and eat battery power. It looks like the system is sleeping but actually it isn’t. While the Hibernation mode is useful when you’re running on batteries. Hibernating is little different from standby in which the system is completely shut down but the the opened programs, data in memory and opened files are preserved and you’re taken to the same state before hibernation when you turn it back on. So instead of using standby try to hibernate it when on batteries.
Adequate RAM reduces the load on Virtual memory which by default resides on the hard drive. Though every extra bit of RAM uses up more power, it increases overall savings by short cutting access to the power hungry hard drive
Ensure that the adapter you use to charge the laptop battery is an original one or one with the correct specifications. A mismatch in the wattage could cause an overload thus damaging the laptop and the battery.
If you don’t plan to use the laptop on batteries for quite some time, ensure that the charge is nearly 40 percent – remove the batteries and store it in a cool place.
A typical lithium ion battery has an overall average life of 2-3 years. With some care and caution, its mortality can be delayed.
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