| Extending the Run Time of Your Laptop's Battery Life |
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| Computers - Computers |
| Written by Stephen Almanson |
| Wednesday, 27 May 2009 09:13 |
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My favorite toy is my laptop computer. I love the flexibility it gives me. Sure I can replicate most of the things I do on my cel phone, but I would much rather use my laptop. I mean really, who would want to watch a video on the small screen of their cel phone when a laptop is pretty convenient. The only real complaint most people have is the battery life is not long enough.
My favorite toy is my laptop computer. I love the flexibility it gives me. Sure I can replicate most of the things I do on my cel phone, but I would much rather use my laptop. I mean really, who would want to watch a video on the small screen of their cel phone when a laptop is pretty convenient. The only real complaint most people have is the battery life is not long enough. Currently, the average battery life for a rechargeable laptop battery life is 78 minutes. That means after an hour is up, you need to start hunting for an outlet to recharge your battery. This can be a bit inconvenient if you are airborne on a cross country flight in economy class. And of course, that 78 minutes is dependent upon what you are doing with that computer. If you are playing games or watching a movie, look out. Your battery life will be even less. Wireless internet modems drain your battery live by as much as 20%. So does that mean I need to rely on my blackberry for internet access? Hell no. There are a few things I can do (and you can too) to extend my battery life. One of the easiest things you can do is to lower the brightness of your screen. The brighter your display, the more batter you will use. Obviously, you need to keep your display bright enough so that you can see what you are doing. And some laptops automatically dim when you move to battery power. But if yours does not, or even if it does, it is a good practice to keep your monitor dimmer when you are on battery power. You will also want to lower your screen resolution. And if you can limit your use of graphics, that too will help your battery last longer. External devices drain battery, this includes your USB mouse too. Try to limit their use to when you are running off the battery, and never charge other devices from your laptop unless it is plugged into an outlet itself. These devices rapidly drain your battery. Another thing to keep in mind is that multi-tasking uses more battery power than simply doing one thing at a time. Background programs also eat up battery power, so you should shut down anything that may be active in the background. Easy to use programs like email and word processing or spreadsheet programs are more usable when you are trying to conserve battery than playing games. If you are using an application that has an auto-save option, turn that off. You will need to periodically save your work manually, especially as you get battery is running out of power. Using hibernate instead of standby will gain you a bit of battery time too. If you have a newer computer you can manage your power options in your control panel; select max battery option. Finally, if none of these things results in any real gain, or if you simply cannot stand it any longer, it may be time to consider a new laptop. Longer battery life is one of the key selling points today and some laptops promise as much as seven hours of cord-free time. About the Author: Stephen Almanson, who has been writing about computers for more than thirty years, has created a guide which explains in detail how you can locate reconditioned laptop computers and used laptops under $200. You can find this, and other information about how to get the cheapest notebooks at his site. |