laptop_battery_exampleThe laptops lose their effectiveness if you have to constantly look for power outlet to charge it up. The problem of not having enough power to juice up the laptop for more than a few hours is still something that even the most dedicated manufacturers like Apple or DELL haven’t been able to sort out.  You don’t want a situation when your laptop battery dies out in the middle of something important. Here are some suggestions that will help your laptops run longer on its current battery.

1. Use Built-in Power saving Mode : Using Windows built-in power saving modes can considerably increase battery life. It has cooling regulation and CPU activity routine which will significantly increase the battery life of the laptop. You can find the feature in the power options of control panel if you are using Windows based laptops.

2. Defrag : Regularly Defragmenting your hard drive makes your hard disk work less to fetch a file. So it uses less power.

3. Kill the non-essential processes : When you aren’t visiting the potentially harmful sites, turn off the Anti-Virus program and when you aren’t using the printer, turn off your printer suite etc.

In windows you can do this by opening Task Manager by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del and ending the unnecessary processes. Windows XP can run with as low as 18 processes and there are only 48 necessary processes for Vista.

4. Don’t do Processor Intensive Task Video Compiling, playing highly graphical games, using photoshop sucks up battery at a faster rate. Try avoiding these activities when you aren’t hooked up.

5. Hibernate : Use hibernate instead of keeping it in standby mode. Hibernate function copies the content of RAM to your Hard Drive and then shuts the laptop completely. On the other hand stand by function uses little power. You can enable the hibernate option by accessing the power option from the control panel in case of windows.

6. Dim your screen : Screen Backlight uses a handsome amount of power. Dimming it to its lowest possible setting will increase battery life. You can find this option in the monitor settings.

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7. Cut down the external devices : External devices including your mouse uses power from your laptop. Try using the trackpad instead.

8. Use your optical drive to minimal extent : If you have your stuff copied in the hard disk, run them from there. Remove any disk if you’re not accessing the disk. Even spinning the disk requires power from your laptop battery.

9. Disable your wireless connection and Bluetooth when not in use. Mute the speakers when you don’t need it.

10. Try using headphones instead of laptop speakers when listening to music. They use less power.

11. Cleaning your battery metal contacts every couple of months with a cloth moistened with rubbing alcohol makes transfer of power from battery more efficient.

12. Take care of your battery : If you do not use your battery for a long time, do not charge it fully and remove the battery and keep this in the freeze. Do not put it in the freezer. Both Extreme hot and cold temperature can damage the battery.

13. For Old batteries : If you have older laptops with Ni-Mh batteries, you should discharge it completely at least once a week. Otherwise, battery life will be significantly reduced. Newer laptops with Li-ion batteries does not have the “memory” problem.

14. Use the correct recharging procedure for your laptop. Only use the power cord that came with your laptop or an authorized replacement.

15. Calibrate the Circuit : Lastly, you should discharge your laptop at least once in a couple of month to recalibrate the circuit that keeps on tabs on how much battery life is left. Otherwise it may show wrong battery level after a few month or so.
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Conclusion

If you think that remembering this points is not that easy, consider yourself as the computer. If you are working harder, you’ll expend more energy at less time. If you keep the processor at a walking pace, you’ll be able to walk more distance. And if your are walking with too much load you’ll exhaust early. This is why you should cut down the programs which are running in background. Tell us if you find this article helpful or if you have any suggestion.