Get Extra Time Out Of Your Laptop's Battery

With just a few minor alterations it is possible to significantly extend the time that your laptop will run on battery power. By using as many of the following ideas as possible will result in your laptop computer working for a longer time from its battery power.

Go to the Windows Power Setting Options found in Control Panel and alter the settings to the greatest energy saving option. It is a quick and straightforward method to save battery energy with the least amount of thought.

Just decreasing the brightness of the laptop display will save a lot of battery power. So using the laptop in a darkened room at minimum brightness is bound to save extra power.

Having lots of packages executing while the laptop is simply idling is wasteful on power and can slow the execution of the vital applications and losing battery power. It will be best to isolate and stop most of those other than essential ones like a virus checker.

When turning off the laptop do not put it into standby as this still uses quiet a lot of battery power; as an alternative use hibernate. This has the benefit of utilizing almost no battery power and allowing the laptop to quickly startup.

The hard drive is slow and makes use of more energy, the RAM is very quick and does not use a lot power, so adding extra RAM should speed up all operations of the laptop computer and reduce power drain from the battery.

Turn off any unnecessary hardware components. The WI-FI card makes use of battery power when turned on even if not connected to the network. It can usually be turned off via a switch or keyboard functions.

CD and DVD drives use a substantial amount of energy when running, so don't set up applications or access data from these but from the hard drive. Typically, it is possible to instruct a piece of software program to install completely from CD or DVD to the hard drive so that it does not must run from the power hungry CD or DVD drive.

If sound is not actually necessary then muting the sound or significantly reducing the volume of the laptop speakers can reduce power consumption. Typically users have music playing whilst working their laptop, that is okay on mains, however on battery will very quickly discharge it.

If the laptop computer is allowed to overheat perhaps by blocking the air inlet vent then the cooling fan will be running most of the time utilizing up a lot of battery power. This will even have the effect of waring out the fan and damaging some of the laptop's internal chips. So do not use your laptop in your lap!

Unfortunately, each battery will keep less and less charge the more times it's used and charged and discharged. Care should be taken to try to extend the battery life so long as is possible. Do not let the battery become hot as it will shorten its life. Don't leave on charge for lengthy periods as soon as fully charged. Try to almost fully discharge the battery before recharging.

This is not a complete list of things that have an effect on battery life, but it should provide you with a few indications of where to look to save battery energy and prolong the operation of your laptop computer when away from mains power.