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Home » Battery Tips
- It's safe to say that each and every one of us has probably encountered a situation in which we planned to do some work on our laptop and the bettery died all of a sudden. Whether it’s on a flight, train ride or simply lying on your living room couch, the to need to stay connected has become a neccasity - laptops, amongthe rest - provide us exactly that. The only problem is how to keep your laptop running for a longer time without connecting it to a power port. We feel that a part of being a leading laptop battery distributor means we should provide useful tips that will help you squeeze more juice from your laptop battery and will educate you to properly use it.
- Tweaking tips:
- 1. Turn the lights down low – If you know that you are not going to be near a power port any time soon, dim the screen’s light to the lowest level you can put up with. Your LCD screen is one of the biggest battery power consumers on your laptop.
- 2. Basic is economical – Windows 7 and Windows Vista come with visual features like “Aero” which are big power consumers. Disable them in windows 7 by right click on your Desktop > Select Personalize > Select Windows 7 Basic Theme. In windows Vista, disable them by right click on your desktop > Personalize > Window color and appearance > click on classic appearance properties for more color options > Select Windows Vista Basic and click OK.
- 3. If possible, increase the RAM of your laptop. This will cause your OS to reduce the load on its virtual memory which by default resides on your hard drive. Hard drives are also one of the biggest power consumers when it comes to laptops. Using your hard drive less means more battery life!
- 4. Defrag regularly – this will help to arrange data in your hard drive in a more efficient way, thus resulting in less work for your hard drive and more battery juice for you.
- 5. Monitor your scheduled tasks – While on battery, try to avoid them as much as possible, make sure they are scheduled to a time when you are near a power outlet.
- 6. Shut down unnecessary services – Itunes, Msn messenger, Skype and even the MS-Word’s and Excel’s auto save functions add to your CPU load and hard disk writes. The result is less battery life. Close any service that isn’t crucial for you.
- Tips for proper battery care:
- 1. Pay attention to the environmental temperature – Heat is the main reason for depletion and malfunctioning of Li-Ion batteries. Don’t leave your laptop under direct sunlight; don’t keep it on while inside your bag, etc.
- 2. Don't over charge your battery: Although some laptops have an over charge protection, your battery will heat up if you constantly keep it connected to the charger. Heat is one of the reasons for battery malfunctions. If you know you're about to be connected to the charger for a long period of time, remove the battery from the laptop.
- 3. Before taking your battery out of your laptop, make sure it is charged to a level of 40% and store it in a cool place.
- 4. Be sure to use the right AC-adapter – Using the wrong AC-adapter may cause an overload and damage both the laptop and your battery.
- 5. Clean your air vents once in a while to maintain an easy flow of heat out of your laptop. Blocked air vents will cause the laptop’s temperature to rise, thus reducing the life of you battery. In addition, try to position your laptop in such a way that its air vents are not blocked.
- 6. Once in a while, clean the contacts of both the laptop and the battery. In order to do that, use a plain cloth and a small amount of rubbing alcohol.
- General tips:
- 1. Don’t use external devices – USB devices, external hard drives, mobile phones, etc. These are some of the biggest power consumers. Try to use them only when you are near a power outlet.
- 2. Disable the screen saver – shutting of your screen is a much better way to save a little extra in battery life.
- 3. Take out any CD/DVD that’s left on your CDROM/DVD devices. A spinning disk will drain you battery quite quickly.
- 4. Don’t multitask – When on battery, try to work on as little tasks in parallel as possible. If there are tasks in the background which are not needed now – kill them. For example, try not to work on your mails while meanwhile you have your Powerpoint presentation pending for design.
- 5. Don’t use none essential components – Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, IR radios, etc. These are some of the biggest power drainers, avoid using them unless needed.
- 6. Hibernate, not standby: Although placing a laptop in standby mode saves some power and you can instantly resume where you left off, it doesn’t save anywhere as much power as the hibernate function does. The Hibernate option actually saves your PC’s state as it is and causes it to completely shut down.
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