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4/22/2008

How do I maximize my laptop battery life?

Laptop battery life takes a important role for a mobile computer. Theres nothing worse than really needing to access you laptop only to have it by AC/DC adapter with power due to low battery. There are some tips that can help to prolong battery life.

The first thing to consider would be the conditioning of the laptop battery. More namely your charging habits. The worst thing you can do for your laptop battery is always keep it on the charger or charge it while its only half full. This will diminish the life of the battery giving you less hours of operating time. The ideal way to charge your laptop battery pack would be to use it until it is completely discharged and then charge it fully.

The second issue to consider would be your usage habits. Using multimedia such as movies and music will kill your battery a lot quicker. Especially doing operations that are CPU intensive. Playing games will diminish your power supply a lot quicker than say, browsing the internet.

There are also different settings that can help preserve your battery life. Windows has different functions for laptop. For instance you can set your power usage depending on what you are doing. You can set your laptop to act like a desktop if you are near a power supply to get the full performance out of your system. On the other hand you can also set it to use power as efficiently as possible if you are on the move. These setting change things such as the amount of power the CPU uses, the brightness of the screen and more.

In the end its up-to the individual user. Some laptops come with the option of a second battery which can double the power your laptop has at your disposal but this is often costly. Also there are more advanced batteries that can be used but again they will cost you extra.